


Book One:  Taya

by mergenwalls



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Avatar Cycle, Bending (Avatar), Canon Disabled Character, F/F, F/M, Female Protagonist, Lesbian Character, Post-Avatar: The Legend of Korra, cool enjoy my fic, i have no idea how to tag this is my first post ever lmao, pls let me know if my formatting is weird or something, the korrasami is super minor but important to plot so i put it in relationships sorry not sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-04-21 07:58:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 44,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14280492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mergenwalls/pseuds/mergenwalls
Summary: Eighteen years after the mysterious death of Avatar Korra, the modern world of TV and the Internet is still at a loss for finding her reincarnation. Now the only candidate who remains is a rich girl with no ability to bend and a problem with authority.  Together with new friends Z’avi, Em, Li Yin, and cat Mr. Snowball; Taya must either find the avatar before the resurrected, Red Lotus terrorists or prove herself to a world that’s already turned its back on her.





	1. Foreward

**Author's Note:**

> “Taya” is set in the ATLA universe featuring familiar names and faces from ALTA/LOK and original characters. It's got a little action, a lot of angst, a splash of comedy, and a hell of a lot of relatability.

_Gotta hurry._

The glowing afternoon sun cast shadows in a somber hallway within the Southern Water Nation embassy – a traditionally styled building trimmed with blue and white.  What would have been a bright and relatively warm spring day in Republic City was tainted with the chill of death.  Civilians observed the towering structure along the water with worried expressions hidden by medical-grade face masks.  They and the herds of reporters eagerly awaited the next update on the condition of the renowned Avatar Korra.

 _Gotta hurry_ , a young healer repeated to herself as she scurried through the halls.  Her healers’ robes whipped around as she hastily turned the corners.  The pitcher of water balanced on her tray swirled and spilled despite her best efforts, and the sleeves of her robes were nearly soaked.  She swerved around anxious, whispering visitors blocking a doorway and ducked into the darkened room.

Inside, there was a pale woman lying on crisp bedsheets and surrounded by family, beeping monitors, and whispering dignitaries.  They had come far to honor Avatar Korra in her final hours; though, if it weren’t for her infrequent breathing, she already appeared dead.

Korra was only sixty-six years old, but even she couldn’t fend off a strange epidemic that had spread.  In her time as avatar, Korra had completely changed the world – bringing with her democracy and spirituality, transforming and modernizing wherever she went.  She had been at the peak of her popularity and physical health.  Then, within the last few months, Korra had become fatally ill just as the others.  Some of the greatest healers in the world had traveled to her side, but none were successful. 

And with the world’s number one, most important person on their death bed, the media circus was chaos.  The young healer glanced through the second story window.  She saw rows of mourning bystanders holding candles and a line of White Lotus guards in their suits and earpieces keeping them contained.  The young healer thought it was like Korra’s life force was a flickering candle that was being snuffed out before the world could truly survive without its warmth.

“How much longer?” she whispered to her teacher, setting the water tray on a table in the back of the room.

“Not even an hour, I’m afraid,” the master healer whispered back.  “Her breathing is irregular . . . her pulse incredibly weak.”  He sighed and removed his stethoscope.  “There’s nothing more to do.  She’s held on longer than the others, but still . . .” He glanced at the avatar and cleared his throat.  “If you are not immediate family, please step outside.”  A few dignitaries grumbled but shuffled out nonetheless, leaving the door slightly ajar.  The young healer noticed several of them staring obnoxiously through the slight opening.  She glared at each of them, stepping between Korra’s family and the nosy onlookers.

President Asami sat quietly next to Korra.  They were hand in hand with Asami’s head laid next to hers – no makeup and eyes puffy from tears and nights without sleep.  Asami was having the most trouble accepting Korra’s sudden deterioration of health. 

On the opposite side of the bed stood their three adopted children.  Two older girls clutched handkerchiefs and wiped their eyes frequently, and a toddler-aged boy stood there expressionless with his eyes unfocused.

“A-sami,” the whole room hung on Korra’s weak whisper.

“Grab a recorder,” the master healer urgently turned to his subordinate.  She immediately knew what he meant.  These were going to be Korra’s final words, and the whole world was listening.  The young healer nodded furiously and grabbed the device from the nightstand drawer as everyone else edged closer to the bed. 

Asami swallowed hard.  “Go ahead, Korra.” 

“I know I changed everything when I broke the cycle,” the words seemed to come out painfully for her.  Asami winced. “Maybe the cycle’s . . . messed up now; or anything could be different.  You have to find them as soon as possible-.”  She took a wheezing deep breath.  Earth Nation dignitaries murmured nervously from just outside the doorway.  They probably expected their nation to be next.  The young healer glared in their direction.

“Korra, _don’t worry_.  Your duties will be passed on.  The world is ready to . . . let you go,” Asami choked down a sob.  There wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

Korra managed to smile.  She and Asami looked into each other’s eyes as Korra’s breathing visibly slowed.  Their children came closer then, crying out softly to their mom.  Korra smiled weakly at each of them and held out her hand, which they all grabbed.  Ever so gradually, her smile faded and her eyelids shut.  Avatar Korra was no more.

Meanwhile, in a military compound just a few hours away by air ship, a newborn child cried with its first breath. 

…

A few days passed.  A little boy sat in his living room watching the television.  His face was blank in the darkness.  On the screen, a news anchor wore a black suit, shirt, and tie.  Their expression was sad.

“Avatar Korra’s wake was held today in what has now been renamed Avatar Korra Memorial Park.  Her tomb will lie beneath her statue in Republic City, and may be visited by the public as early as next week.”

 _Tap. Tap. Tap._   Rain hit the window rhythmically.  It seemed to echo through the quiet home just like the anchor’s voice.

“In related news, the Katara Memorial Research Institute believes they may be getting closer to understanding the tragic epidemic that has now claimed sixteen lives-“

The little boy frowned, changing the channel.  He didn’t want to watch footage of himself with the same expressionless face, looking into the grave.  He didn’t want to see the thousands of candles lit to honor his mother.

“Of course, Councilman.  _Now_ , let’s get to our main topic for the evening:  Avatar Korra’s last words.  We’ve been hearing about them for a couple days now, but what do they _really_ _mean_? Why do we need this avatar _so quickly_ when we’re in peacetime?  Your thoughts?” A young woman with thick, rimless glasses was sitting at a large desk with several guests sat in the chairs next to her.  A logo watermarked at the bottom corner of the screen noted that this was “Tea Time with Teresa.”

“Well, if I may?” a middle-aged woman with air bending tattoos peeking from behind her graying bangs spoke first.  “Master Korra altered the avatar cycle in her youth during her battle with the dark spirit Vaatu.  Korra’s spiritual connection to past avatars was severed.  She was concerned that the order of the cycle or other traditional expectations may have been changed as well.”

“Master Jinora, do you agree with Avatar Korra?” the hostess Teresa asked.  She looked at her briefly and pursed her lips before answering.

“We all know that Avatar Korra was a wise and spiritual woman.  While we can’t know for sure, her altering of the cycle could mean any number of changes.”  Jinora’s words hung on dead air for a few moments.

“So you have no idea where or who the new avatar will be, do you?” Teresa accused.  The studio audience gave a light gasp.  Jinora couldn’t hide her frustration.

“It has been merely days since Korra’s passing.  Of course we have no idea,” she snapped.  “We are dispatching White Lotus agents as well as volunteers from all nations to participate in a worldwide search with an emphasis on the Earth Nation.  We will do all that is necessary to find the new avatar.  It was Master Korra’s final request.”  Her eyes shined with the threat of tears.

“Ha!  That’s a lot of effort to find a politician that won’t be useful to us for another thirty years,” another guest sneered.  He wore a suit that brandished a pin on his lapel.  It depicted a red, orange, green, and blue shield to symbolize all nations.  It was something worn by United Republic Councilmen.  Jinora turned to him with a sharp expression.

“What did you say?” she asked.

“You and I both know that the avatar’s role now is merely that of a politician.  We have plenty of politicians!  The Fire Nation’s oppression ended _generations_ ago.  Even if the new avatar is stuck in an iceberg again, who cares?  My constituents certainly don’t.  Why waste the time and resources-“

“How dare you?  Aren’t _you_ a politician?! The avatar is a _person_.  They are a _spiritual guardian_.  They have been and always will be an important-“

The little boy stopped listening.  He didn’t fully understand what was going on – only that the angry adults were talking bad about his mom.

 _Zahavi, wipe that grin off your face.  You look so guilty,_ Korra had told him once just meters from where he sat.  A Southern Water Tribe artifact in their Republic City home lay in hundreds of pieces on the kitchen floor. 

 _Mom, it was an accident, I promise!_ he had said, a slight lisp from his three-year-old self.  It was only months later that his mom started coughing.

 _Well, I should ground you, you know_.  Korra laughed. _But,_ I _actually broke it last week.  Tried to glue it together so your mother wouldn’t notice . . . I’ve always been so over-protective of it; she’d never let me live it down._

_You broke it?_

_I guess you take after me, Z’avi_.  They laughed together.

 

“I’m sad, mom.” Zahavi, still sitting in front of the television, felt a tear fall.  A photo of Korra holding him and walking with his sisters was displayed on the screen.  He blinked it away and wiped what had spilled with his forearm.  “But I won’t cry anymore,” he firmly declared.


	2. Taya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taya is not your average avatar. Well, there's a chance she's not the avatar at all. That doesn't stop her from training her body in the ways of the avatar, though; and it certainly doesn't stop anyone from trying to kill her.

With designer clothes and perfect hair, Taya was the last person you’d expect to see sprawled out across a rock on the outskirts of Ba Sing Se.  Though the walls and rings had been taken down many years ago, the outskirts were still where the less privileged made their homes and crime rates scared away the rest of her social class.  Here, just beyond those homes, she sometimes came to practice her martial arts and bending poses in peace without her attendants or the reporters.  Afterwards, she’d spread out on a rock to let the cool breeze refresh her energy.  The military compound she called home was in the central district of the city where the smog and traffic made fresh air a necessity.  Taya took in a deep breath-

“Meoooow.”  A fat ball of fur jumped onto Taya’s stomach abruptly.

“Oof!” she grunted.  “Mr. Snowball, you really need to lose a few pounds.”  Taya moaned in complaint but reached a hand out to pet the white cat that followed her anywhere and everywhere.  It settled onto her chest and purred loudly.

Taya scanned the horizon.  Though the roads were paved, the ones out here were paved poorly.  The soil was too rocky to grow food, but rural dwellers tried anyway; and their dry fields stretched for several kilometers.  In the distance, Taya could see the sun setting behind the coal mines and streaking the sky with hues of purple.

“Sunset!” Taya shot up.  Mr. Snowball meowed in annoyance.  “Snow, it’s already sunset!  Dad’s going to kill me.”  Taya groaned and hopped down from the rock to hit the ground with a thud.  Mr. Snowball continued to meow in frustration, but Taya shoved the cat in his special bag as she hurriedly jogged in the direction of central Ba Sing Se.

Suddenly, a terrible sensation crept over Taya.  She stopped.  Mr. Snowball was still meowing.

“Snow, _shush_ ,” she complained half-heartedly.  Her attention was on the cliff just above where she had been laying.  Taya couldn’t explain how, but she knew someone had been there . . . watching – had been for at least a week.  Every time she went to search, though, she found nothing but more anxiety.    She shuddered at the thought of being right.  “Let’s go, Snow,” she whispered.  Taya backed away a few steps before pivoting and taking off again.

 

“Lady Taya?”

Taya came up on the gate of the military compound slightly winded, Mr. Snowball asleep in her backpack despite the rocky ride.  The sky was completely dark now save the few stars she could see in the heart of the light-polluted city.  It was a new moon.

“No, Yi Zu.  I’m the great Lord Zuko.  Let me in.”  Taya laid on the sarcasm as thick as possible for Captain Obvious, one of the evening shift guards.  She fished a lanyard attached to a name badge from within her shirt to shove into his face.  He rolled his eyes and punched a code into a panel along the side of a post.

“Your dad is going to lose it, Lady Taya,” Yi Zu pointed out.  He smirked at her when he turned back in her direction.

“Good _night_ , Yi Zu,” Taya matched his condescending tone and marched inside. 

 

Her house was surrounded by military barracks.  Each one resembling a tent but made of unbendable platinum and full of awkward young men who had all tried to talk to Taya at least once.  She always felt the need to speed walk through – not that it helped.  There was always a group outside that felt no embarrassment in openly staring, which was something she usually responded to with a “just take a picture of me already” or “I wonder if my dad knows his soldiers are paid to gawk at me.”  Tonight, Taya was too tired and in too much of a hurry to be bothered by it. 

She gracefully strode past the last structure and came upon a massive home that seemed to belong to a mover star – certainly not in a military compound.  Everything was beautifully landscaped and lush and green.  Taya stepped along a cobblestone path to a door twice as tall as she was and door knockers carved from emerald.  She peaked through giant windows but saw no movement inside.  Taya skirted the outside of the building until she reached a gorgeous patio surrounded by a well-tended garden.  She glanced up the side to the balcony that belonged to her room.  As usual, she was going to have to climb.  The building was three stories here, and every detail was of the finest quality.

Taya hated it.

 “Lady Taya!” came a familiar though winded voice.  Taya froze just as she had started climbing her usual tree. A tanned woman with prematurely gray hair was breathing heavily and looking up from the ground below. “Why do you never tell me where you’re going?  I’ve been running around for nearly two _hours_.  You’re lucky your father still isn’t home.”  This was, of course, one of her father’s advisors – frequently reduced to Taya’s assistant – Li Yin.  She was usually all talk and no force-Taya-to-behave.  Taya managed to do virtually whatever she wanted even though her father was overly protective.  Li Yin nervously glanced around.  “Are you going to get down?”

“This is still the quickest way to my room, Li Yin.  Good night,” Taya called as she hopped onto a branch.  Her own strength always surprised her; but then again, she’d climbed this tree many, many times.

“ _Taya_!” Li Yin begged, but Taya had already hopped onto the balcony and disappeared from sight.  “Did you not hear me say that I haven’t told your father?  Are you even going to eat dinner?”

…

“ _Goooood evening, Ba Sing Se!_ ”

The silence outside the New Northern Air Temple’s main lounge juxtaposed the enthusiastic tone used by an obviously new anchor.  A young man in traditional Air Nation robes groaned next to a middle-aged woman also in robes.  Her air bending tattoo twitched as she narrowed her eyes when he stood and turned to leave. 

“We begin tonight with our top story:  next Wednesday will mark eighteen years since the death of Avatar Korra.”  The young man felt a sharp pang like ice freezing him from the inside out.  He slowly sat back down.

This was the only room in the temple aside from the visitor’s rooms that even had a television.  He was constantly infuriated with the media and the politics that seemed to follow him wherever he went, but he couldn’t keep himself from coming in here occasionally and listening to whatever the local news anchors were rambling about.  Most of the time, it was nonsense he could tolerate for maybe ten minutes at most.  Today, though, it hit close to home. 

The anchor continued, “Still, we have nothing new regarding her reincarnation; nor do we have an explanation as to why the Air Nation officials have not announced their identity.  Even more puzzling, Master Jinora has not made a public appearance in over a year! What strange things might be happening within the Air Nation?  We bring this story to you . . . on Ba Sing Se News at six.”  An annoying jingle played.  The ice he had felt was melting with a growing rage.

“What strange things indeed.  _You’re_ watching the news?” a tattooed air bending girl laughed from the doorway.  The young man turned to her and made sure she could see him rolling his eyes.  She seemed to be a younger version of the older air bending woman beside him.  “Oh, hush, Zahavi” she glared.  She straightened her own traditional robes.

“Didn’t say a word, _Emerald_ ,” he grinned slightly and turned back to the television.  He could hear her sticking out her tongue, but he was too engrossed in the story. 

“The late Avatar Korra was a modernizer.  She cleaned up crime.  She brought us the Harmonic convergence and the Republic City Spirit World portal.  She gave us a United Government and harmony.  Who can fill her shoes?”

“Are you okay, Z’avi?” the older air bending woman asked.  A look of real concern stirred the anger in him again.

“Fine.”  Z’avi scratched the shaved side of his head and ran his fingers through the tuft of dark brown hair along the top.  Now the three stared at the paparazzi shot of a pale, toned girl with black hair and brilliant green eyes that had appeared on the screen.  She wore clothes that looked more expensive than everything Z’avi owned put together, and a rather large white cat snoozed in a designer bag she had slung over her shoulder.  She stared straight into the photographer’s camera – a passive look on her face.  A banner along the bottom identified her as “’ _Avatar’_ Taya” mockingly.

“We have to bring her, you know – before her birthday,” Emerald spoke in a low voice.

 “Imagine:  in eighteen years, the closest thing we have to a new avatar is Former President Chen’s erratic daughter.  There are rumors that the _Air Nation_ doesn’t even take her seriously and refuses to acknowledge her.”  The news anchor was irritating Z’avi beyond belief. 

_What kind of news reporting is this?_ he grumbled to himself.  A video clip of a younger girl with the same long, black hair popped up on the screen now.

“I’m the avatar!” the child beamed.  Camera flashes lit up her green eyes.  The then President Chen laughed loudly and hushed his daughter.

“Isn’t my little girl so cute?” he pinched one of her cheeks with thinly veiled nervous laughter.  She narrowed her eyes up at him.

“I really am, Daddy!” she pouted.

“What if it isn’t her, Master Pearl?” Z’avi asked, interrupting whatever deep thoughts the older woman had been lost in.  He looked over to her, the arrow tattooed on her forehead crinkled with her furrowed brow.

“You know the answer to that.”

….

_Taya_.  A voice called. Her dream was a void of blackness.  All that was was this voice calling out to her. It seemed to be an endless plea.  Taya desperately wanted to go to the voice, but she could feel nothing.  She was numb.  The voice came from all directions – begging and begging for Taya – but she couldn’t see nor move.

_Taya._ She felt like she might be losing her mind.  _Taya._

“Taya!”  It was Li Yin’s voice, calling from a distance.  Taya shot up, rubbing at an eye.  Mr. Snowball rolled off her stomach meowing.  Taya hadn’t even realized that she’d fallen asleep.  “Lady Taya, you never learn!”  Li Yin sat in the driver’s seat of a military-issued Satomobile.  Taya recognized it as one of the armored vehicles her father kept for bragging purposes unbendable armor equipped with fancy weapons that would never be fired.

“I’m not sure there’s a lesson to be learned in self-care, Li Yin.  I got that covered.”  Her voice was raspy and full of the fatigue she felt in her bones. 

“Lady Taya, you’ve been training outside the city too much recently.  You know I hate driving here to come get you.  We have perfectly good training facilities within the city limits you know!”  Li Yin sighed and pressed a button on the console in front of her, and the hum of her car ceased.  She exited the vehicle and sighed with exasperation, “and you can’t sleep _here_.”  Li Yin gestured all around.  Taya had been dedicated to staking out the area around her napping rock but had succumbed to her lack of sleep instead. 

“Listen, I told you I was coming here this time, though.  And why not?” she asked. “I don’t carry money. I’m _no one_ here.”

“Taya, don’t pull that.  Just because you aren’t walking around town doesn’t mean the entire world doesn’t know who you are.  And you still _look_ like you carry money.  That gear you’re sleeping in costs more than most people earn in a week; and there are only four of those bracelets in the _world_!” Li Yin jostled Taya’s prized possession.  Beautiful spirit world fireflies carved from emerald and detailed with real gold encircled her wrist.

“ _Pff_ , like anyone living here would know that.  No one’s going to try to rob me if they really know who I am anyway.” Taya smirked.  Li Yin glared at her.  She might as well head back, though.  The sun was already low in the sky.  “Whatever.  Let’s just go,” she sighed.  Taya hopped up to leave, but Li Yin was starring past her.  She followed her gaze.

Atop the cliff, there was a rustle in the trees opposite the direction of the wind.  Taya held her breath for a moment, but that moment ended when nothing appeared.

“It’s an animal, Taya, come on.”  Taya slid off her rock slowly; her blanket tucked under one arm.  “I came to tell you your father has called for you.  We should hurry.”

“I don’t think that’s an animal, Li Yin.”  They both were fixated on that spot until Mr. Snowball meowed.  Taya jerked her head in that direction to find a man just a few meters away who hadn’t been there a minute before.

“Whoa-ho, is this fur ball yours?” he asked when Snow gave a hiss.  The man wore dirty, torn overalls with a pick-axe resting on his shoulder and soot smeared on his nose signifying he was a coal miner who worked in the caves about a half-kilometer away.

Li Yin and Taya tensed, assuming defensive stances.  “You don’t need to know.  Move along,” Li Yin warned.  Though she was always nagging, Li Yin was secretly a badass.  Taya smiled.

“Whoa, lady.  I just couldn’t help but hear you say that bracelet is one of four in the entire world.  I know that’s gotta be worth – what – at least a million yuans?” he was laughing to himself.  He swung his pick axe around, holding it as though he was ready to use it.  Li Yin changed her stance and reached for the weapon she kept strapped her arm.

“Li Yin, no,” Taya whispered. “He’s probably just a thug.  We can do this without harming him.”  Li Yin shot her an intense glare.  At that moment, Taya sensed someone behind her.  She turned just in time to miss another man’s pickaxe – this one lit with fire.  Its tip grazed her pants with a small tear and pierced her napping rock – sending a crack spider-webbing outward.  Taya quickly patted the singe before it could sear the fabric to her leg.

“Ouch! What the hell is _this_?  Fire benders?” Taya wondered aloud.  A third man was rushing for Li Yin.  Instinctively, Taya closed her eyes.  A transparent figure resembling her body appeared in front of Li Yin, arms outstretched.  The third man hesitated long enough for Li Yin to counter with the knife she had just pulled from her shirt sleeve.  Taya returned to her body at the last moment for her to dodge another attack.  “ _I said ‘What is this,’ miner?_ ” but the miner was no longer there.  Taya swiveled around frantically, but her instincts told her where he would be.

The miner reappeared atop the cliff, smiling down. He shrugged impishly; and on his neck, Taya noticed something in red ink.  Her eyes widened.  “But you’re not a miner at all, are you?”

Taya yanked her bracelet from her wrist and clasped her hands in a meditating pose.  Her eyes glazed as she again left her body.  A moment later, she was grabbing the man’s pickaxe and his throat.

“What does the Red Lotus want with me?” she barked.  Taya tightened her grip.  The lotus flower tattooed in red was still partially visible through her transparent fingers.  She felt his throat tense, but something was wrong.

“You think we were sent for you without knowing about your ability, _Avatar_ Taya?” He said the title insultingly.  The tone was very familiar to her.  Even her own father doubted who she was. 

“Did your research, did you?” Taya squeezed tighter.

“Ha!” He grinned menacingly as his other arm reached around and slammed its fist into the small of her back.  Taya suddenly felt completely numb.

_A pressure point?_ she thought in panic.   _But this isn’t even my real body._   Her grips on him loosened.  She was helpless while watching one of the men below grab her body.  Li Yin sprang at him, but a third miner grabbed both her wrists from behind; the knife falling from her grip and into the dirt.  Taya turned her attention back to the man holding her.

“You’re gonna regret doing that,” she smirked.  The man laughed again.

“Regret what?  Roughing up a spoiled _avatar wannabe_?” he sneered, the words stinging like the blow she’d taken to her back.  The man’s pickaxe hand knocked away hers with ease and swung.  She was forced to return to her real body where she had already been bound with rope.

“You’re the most boring assassination attempt yet,” Tara smirked but winced slightly at a pain radiating from where she’d been hit.  The miner who had bound her reached to seal her mouth with tape.  “However,” she dodged, “there’s probably nothing in your research about _this_!”

Taya’s body suddenly went limp and fell to the ground.  The miner behind her jumped.

“Boss, is she . . .”  He looked around.  “Do I need to be worried about this?” he shouted.      Li Yin smirked.  The third miner tying rope around her wrists suddenly let her go, and the binding fell loose.  Li Yin grabbed it and bound his hands instead.   “Hey, what are you doing?” the other miner backed up slowly, very confused.  Li Yin scraped up her knife and leaped at him as the bound miner collapsed and hit his head against the rocks.

Taya returned to her body then.  The leader’s face was full of anger and confusion. 

“You call me the avatar, but you completely underestimated me?” Taya sat up so that Li Yin could cut the ropes that bound her wrists.  With her bracelet in hand, Taya again assumed a meditation pose.  Their leader looked left and right with fear; but Taya appeared behind him.

“Big mistake,” she taunted as he moved right into her kick.  It smashed into his face, and his eyes seemed to glaze over instantly.  Taya returned to her body to watch his collapse with satisfaction.  “How’s that for a wannabe?”

Li Yin smoothed a stray, gray hair and removed a radio from within her car.  “This is Captain Li Yin.  We need a team in Section F,” she said into it.  Mr. Snowball, seeing that the coast was clear, hopped out of a bush and walked over one of the miners’ unconscious bodies before rubbing his face against Taya’s leg.  Li Yin and Taya exchanged a glance and smiled. “No rush.”


	3. "Avatar"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being treated like a delusional avatar wannabe is an every day occurrence for Taya. Visions from Avatar Korra and a visit from an Avatar Search Party made of some very famous faces, however . . .

“I can’t believe you were in the slums again, Taya.”  A bearded man in a heavily decorated United Forces uniform scowled down at his daughter.  Taya was dancing around a punching bag looking completely uninterested.

“Don’t call it the slums.  Also, _I_ can’t believe this is the fifth time someone’s tried to kidnap or kill me, and you still don’t believe I’m the avatar.”  Taya sent another jab into the bag.  Her father jumped ever so slightly.

“Taya, enough of this.  I pay for perfectly capable body guards you never let guard you!  When you intentionally put yourself in harm’s way, harm will come to you – assassins or not!”

“I was just _outside_!”  She continued her punching.  “Not inviting any harm, believe me!”  He caught her next jab in his fist.  Taya wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and glared up at him. 

“And the Red Lotus are a bunch of lunatics leftover from Avatar Korra’s era!  Don’t listen to their ramblings-“

 “Dad . . . you really don’t believe me, do you?  Don’t try to deny it this time,” Taya’s smirk had melted into a frown.

“I-,” he swallowed.  “You’re nearly _eighteen_ , Taya.  They would have already declared you the avatar.”  He took a pause.  “When you were a child, I believed it just as much as you!  The way you traveled to the spirit world, appeared to _me_ as a spirit,” he laughed lightly to himself, “I thought you _had_ to be the avatar.”

“Liar.  Then why don’t you-“  
           “You can’t _bend_ , Taya!” he shouted at her.  “Earth, water, fire, air – what kind of avatar can’t bend _something_ by the time they’re sixteen?  They should have already declared you two years ago!”

Taya felt something in the pit of her stomach.  As much as she believed she was the avatar, how could she explain that?  She couldn’t even manipulate earth let alone be a master of all four elements.

“Sure, you have amazing spiritual abilities that rival master air benders, but not even the air benders know what this _means_!  When they came here ten years ago, we thought-,” he caught his breath and sighed. “We thought you were a natural.  But you can’t make even the slightest puff of air.  You’re just an anomaly, Taya.  Quit dreaming.”

She sent one last jab deep into the bag and bolted towards the door.  Even though her dad rarely spoke on the subject, Taya had no desire to hear what the little voices were always shouting at her in her head.

“Taya, please-“

Taya weaved through doorways and hurried up staircases to her room.  Her small family was enormously wealthy thanks to her military general turned president father, and their mansion was a maze of empty rooms for just the two of them.  She barely made it to her room before she lost her composure, and she collapsed against the door.  The tears came easily.

 

Taya drifted to sleep, and her dreams were a blur of relived memories.  Reporters asked her if she had been to a psychiatrist or a healer.  Her father told her for the first of many times that she needed to stay in her room for the party in their ballroom downstairs.  The next thing she really remembered was Avatar Korra standing in front of her, generously offering a box of tissues.  She was wearing traditional Water Nation coats, and she appeared to be about thirty years old.  Avatar Korra had been praised as beautiful, but to Taya, she also looked very confident and strong.

“I wish I could help you,” she said, wiping a tear from Taya’s face. “You are not really the avatar.  There is only one.”

“Yeah, yeah.  You’ve told me before.  I have no idea what that _means_!” Taya screamed at her, knocking her hand away.  Korra leaned back, looking surprised, but she gave a comforting smile. 

“Taya, you must find _them_.  Only then can I tell you what this means.”  Korra placed the handkerchief in Taya’s lap and backed away.  She would have backed into the wall, but she simply faded into it.  Taya chased after her and slammed into where Korra had disappeared in flowers of the wallpaper.

“ _Avatar Korra_!” she screamed. “ _Wait_ , please! _What does that mean_?”  Taya pounded on the wall. “What does that even mean . . .”

_Pound, pound, pound._

Taya’s eyes fluttered open.  She was curled into a ball, still by the door she collapsed on earlier.  The early morning sun shone in, blinding her eyes.  She’d slept there all night, and she felt stiff all over.

_Pound, pound, pound._

“Taya, are you in there?  This door is locked again!  I’ve been _looking_ for you!”  It was Li Yin’s frustrated voice.  “There’s an Air Nation envoy here!  I think… I think it might be an avatar search party.”

Taya shot up.  Was she still dreaming?  She didn’t even know there still _were_ avatar search parties.  Taya threw open the door.

“Wow, uh.  You look a mess.  Let’s freshen up before we go down there.” Li Yin was straightening Taya’s clothes gently. “Jeez, you slept in designer gear – so unlike you – and this tear!”  Li Yin analyzed the spot where the Red Lotus miner had snagged her pants.  There was a small welt where his axe had burned and scraped her skin.

“Li Yin . . . why are they here?” Taya asked with hesitation.  The Air Nation had already given up on her once.  She knew this couldn’t be a recognition.

“They . . . didn’t say.  Just that they needed to speak with you. . .”     Li Yin knew that wasn’t what Taya wanted to hear.  Taya sighed.  This had to be an official rejection, then.  The sinking feeling from last night was back with a vengeance.  She wanted to curl up in the same spot on the floor and cry again.

* * *

 

Taya stared into her reflection in the glass shower panels until the steam fogged it up.  The anxiety was eating away at her, and the little sleep she’d gotten wasn’t helping.  She hadn’t been getting much sleep at all recently.  Her eighteenth birthday nagged in the back of her mind – a constant reminder that an onslaught of media attacks was coming again. 

Now she sat still in her powder room lost in thought while Li Yin smoothed her hair, another attendant applied makeup, and another chose an outfit and shoes.  Mr. Snowball applied his daily coating of cat hair to her fresh clothes as he snoozed in her lap, and she gazed up at the mirror.  The gold of her fresh blouse made the green in her eyes incredibly vivid.  They looked wild and worried.  Li Yin mumbled something about how everything looked great on her, but all Taya saw was hairs out of place and the blueish veins underneath her skin.

They walked through the maze house towards the reception room.  It was usually where her father met other military officials and notables in gowns and suits.  Today it would be full of air acolytes in their traditional robes.  Her heart started to beat rapidly.  She was terrified that they were likely there to take from her the only thing she had in life, and her father would be there to smugly pretend to comfort her with an _I told you so_.  The panic grew with every step until, finally, she couldn’t take another.

“Li Yin?” she croaked, now several meters between them.  Li Yin turned, surprised.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.  Worry colored her voice.

“Give me a moment to breathe.  I’ll meet you there.”

“Lady Taya-“

“Please,” Taya begged.  Li Yin hesitated briefly, but nodded and turned away.  Taya watched as she disappeared into a doorway at the foot of the stairs.  “Sorry,” she murmured, and immediately began to run. 

She ducked down a hallway, hopped out onto a balcony, and jumped below.  Her heeled shoes weren’t exactly practical, but she’d had plenty of practice.  Taya landed well enough and began to run again.  She reached into a bush by the compound fence and pulled out a bag.  Inside, she found sunglasses, a green and gold attendant’s robe, and a tie for her hair.  Within moments, she looked like anyone else outside the gates; though, maybe a little more stylish and traditional.  Taya found her foothold in a crack in the wall and hopped over with ease.

* * *

 

“It’s, uh, taking quite a while,” a young man in air acolyte robes finally pointed out.  He scratched the shaved side of his head.  Li Yin and the general both opened their mouths to say something, but neither spoke. “Is she not feeling well?” the man asked with a tinge of sarcasm.

“L-Lady Taya said she needed a moment to freshen up.  Perhaps I should-“

“A moment longer than the hour we’ve already waited?”  The man actually rolled his eyes.  Li Yin was at a loss for words.

“Don’t bother.  She isn’t here,” said an older female air bender.  Her tattoos were visible without sleeves on her robes. 

“How’s that?” General Chen asked.  He had to know, Li Yin thought, but playing dumb would hopefully save face.

“I saw her hop over the fence,” the woman smiled and gestured to the window.  Li Yin knew this would happen.  She put her face in her hands.

“That girl,” General Chen sighed deeply.

“I’ll find her,” groaned the male air acolyte.  Without discussion, he turned and walked towards the entrance.

“How?  . . . I guess I’m going, too,” another female air bender, about the young man’s age, strode after him with a sigh.

“ _You can’t be seen_ ,” the older air bender woman hissed, but she didn’t try to follow them.

“Lady Taya will be in the Southern Park!  She has black hair!” Li Yin yelled after him. “And she’ll be dressed like an attendant!” she yelled again, but she heard the door shut.  General Chen stared at her.

“Captain . . . why would my daughter be wearing attendants’ robes?” he asked.

“Ah . . . well-“ Li Yin gave a nervous laugh.

* * *

 

Taya’s favorite park was about a half-kilometer from her home.  Even though Sato horns blared, it was a peaceful getaway in this busy part of town.  There was green grass, some tall trees, a beautiful fountain, and even turtle-ducks swimming in a man-made pond.  She tossed dried bread crumbs near a cluster of turtle-ducks, which quacked excitedly.  Taya leaned back and folded her arms behind her head, soaking in the rays of the morning sun.  Somehow, as always, Mr. Snowball had followed her there and was tucked up on the dirt nearby in a patch of sunlight.  All seemed well for a moment.

_Find them_ , she heard Avatar Korra’s voice in her mind.  Taya frowned.  The Air Nation had already dedicated the last eighteen years to finding the avatar.  Was there someone else she needed to find, then?  She had seen visions of Avatar Korra many times in her life, and her air bender-like spiritual powers despite her Earth Nation heritage seemed to be evidence enough that she was, in fact, the avatar; but the world still mocked her declarations.  When she was only five, she started introducing herself as the avatar to the public.  But when she seemed to be unable to bend any element after her earth and air bending lessons, the world gave up on her.  They mocked her.  After her ramblings damaged her father’s reputation and political career, her father gave up on her, too.  Avatar Korra’s vague words certainly didn’t help her confidence.

“Ugh!” Taya groaned in frustration.  She grabbed a loose rock beside her and tossed it at the fountain, narrowly missing a frightened turtle-duck.  Why couldn’t she bend?  She looked at her hands closely.  She had received martial arts training since she was young.  Sometimes, she’d even had to use that training; but after all that, her hands were still slight.  She watched her meditation bracelet slide off her slim wrist and down her arm a bit.  “I just need to meditate!” she chirped.  “I’ll feel better if I just-”

“You can meditate here?  With all this noise?” came a man’s voice.  Taya jumped.  She’d had too many surprises lately.  Mr. Snowball mewed and quickly disappeared into a bush.

“Who are you?” she shouted, moving away from the pond and into a strong stance.  Before her was a young man in traditional air acolyte robes with the left side of his head shaved and a scarf covering his face.  He did not have tattoos, which made Taya pause.  Such an athletic looking air acolyte surely had to be an air bender.  She felt the tension of battle melt into her fear again.  “Let’s get it over with, then.”

“Taya, correct?” he asked, pulling down the scarf to reveal a vaguely familiar face.  She nodded, standing straight and bowing respectfully. “I’m Aang.  Would you mind if we talked here?”

_Aang_.  Taya tried to get a better look at him.  This acolyte didn’t have tattoos because he wasn’t an air bender.  In fact, he was one of the most famous fire benders in the world.  This man was Avatar Korra’s son.

“You’re-” she began.  He looked a bit smug as though this was a regular occurrence.

“Yeah.  I’d recognize you anywhere, too.  Anyway . . .” 

He was taller than she pictured, and he looked somewhat like Korra, which was interesting considering they shared no blood relation.  Taya vaguely remembered hearing that after his mother’s death, he sought peace by abandoning worldly possessions and living as an air acolyte while one of his older sisters climbed the political ladder to become one of the top candidates for president of the United Republic.  When he discovered he could bend fire, he trained for a time in the Western Air Temple where a descendent of Firelord Zuko taught him personally.  The press thought he was a mysterious, hot warrior guy; which Taya had to admit wasn’t that far off.  Taya was just an infamous, delusional avatar wannabe; Aang was a legend like his namesake. 

“Why are you here?” she finally asked.  She closed her eyes as if it would change what she knew he was about to say.  Something suspicious had to be going on if Aang the Second had come to her personally.

“You’re too fast,” a woman called from a distance.  Taya opened her eyes and saw a woman about Aang’s age jogging up to his side.  There was something very familiar about her, too – especially seeing her acolyte robes and air bending tattoos peaking from her sleeves and on her forehead.  When she finally reached them, the woman mouthed an _Oh_ before pursing her lips and stepping back.

“Well, to put it simply, we want to take you to the New Northern Air Temple,” he spoke.  Taya blinked.  _What?_

“Wait, what?  The New Northern Air Temple?  Why?” 

“Well . . .” Aang sighed, scratching the shaved side of his head.  His words came out like a rehearsed speech.  “The world is restless.  We reminded them two years ago that this avatar was foreseen to be different from previous avatars, but they don’t care.  If we don’t confirm the new avatar by the end of the year, I think the new one will lose all credibility even if we do find them.”

“So what does this have to do with you taking me to the New Northern Air Temple?”

“Ah, well.  We’re gathering all the prospective avatars now to train them in air bending.  You know, to hasten the process.”

“Air bending?  But I already-“

“Now, I understand that you apparently already _tried_ ,” he cut in, “but Master Jinora has insisted that your spiritual powers are not to be ignored.”  His tone implied that her powers were probably something to ignore.

“Master Jinora?” Taya echoed.  She had admired her all her life as the greatest spiritual master of her age.  Master Jinora was the leader of the Air Nation if there was such a thing.  All the other nations had presidents, anyway.  Though, Taya suddenly remembered reading that Master Jinora hadn’t been seen in public for at least a year.  “Is . . . she okay?”

Aang’s expression changed. “That’s not your concern.”  He took a deep breath.  “Follow us, Taya.  Important people are waiting for you.”

 

Taya followed behind them silently, her head sank low.  She reached behind and patted the backpack that now carried a mildly annoyed Mr. Snowball.  She was ashamed now that she’d been such a coward and ran.  Taya felt heat in her cheeks, and the embarrassment had to be plain on her face.

She looked up at Aang and the other woman.  They walked in silence, but they carried themselves with a confidence that resembled Korra’s from the night before.  Taya never had any of that.  Li Yin scolded her poor posture constantly.

_Ring ring._   A default ringtone sounded from Aang’s pocket. 

“Yeah, we found her.  We’ll be there in ten.”  Aang stopped in the middle of the crowd and stared into a storefront as he spoke.  A frozen juice vendor wheeling his cart tried at least twice to get his attention so that he could get around Aang, but his voice was too soft.  The woman with him wasn’t paying attention – just looking interest at the passing cars.  “I don’t know.  We’ve exchanged maybe twenty words between us.  If you’re so close, come ask her yourself.”  Aang rubbed at a spot on his forehead, still completely oblivious to the old fruit juice vendor. 

Taya closed her eyes and concentrated.  Her other self entered Aang’s body and moved him a step out of the way.  She remained long enough to overhear “Do you hear me, Z’avi?” before the old man grumbled past them both wheeling his cart.  When she returned to her own body, she felt a slight pain in her head.  _I must be tired_ , she thought.  Aang’s eyes fluttered as though coming out of a dream.

“Whoa, what?”  He hung up his phone and slipped it back in his pocket.

“You were in that nice man’s way,” Taya gestured to the still grumbling old man already heading down the street.

“Oh . . .” Aang made a face that Taya couldn’t decipher.  “Whoa, are you okay?” Aang asked, taking note of the way she cradled her skull. 

“What? Yes, sorry.” 

“Was that a spiritual ability?” Taya turned to see the woman coming a little too close for comfort.  Her eyes were wide.

Taya slowly nodded.  Even they didn’t believe the rumors.

“But . . . you really can’t bend air?” Aang looked truly puzzled.  It was probably an ongoing conversation within the Air Nation:  who is this Earth Nation girl who shouldn’t be able to do what she can?

“No,” she sighed.  “Every once in a while, I try the movements again, but there’s nothing.”  With Mr. Snowball still riding in her backpack, she demonstrated a simple movement that involved a spin.  When she faced them again, they seemed even more confused.

“Your form is perfect,” the woman said, perplexed.  Taya gave them an apologetic shrug.  From behind her, she heard the voice of a man asking about this strange group all in traditional robes.  Taya turned.  A small crowd was gathering.  Aang inhaled sharply and whispered, “Master Pearl . . . is going to lock me in the temple for a month.  We need to hurry, Taya.”

“Right,” she said.  Taya took only two steps before she heard a man shout her name.

“Wait, that’s Taya, isn’t it?  What’s going on here?” he shouted just loud enough for the crowd to hear.  There was a buzz of excitement and curiosity.  Taya undid her belt and pulled her robes over her head in an attempt to cover herself.  “Does this mean she’s really the avatar?” he shouted again.  Aang and the woman seemed to be frozen.

“We need to go _now_.”  Taya took Aang’s wrist and ran, clutching the robes that shielded her from their stares. “Keep up!  I know a shortcut there!”

Aang knocked his hand loose but followed her regardless, the young air bending woman not far behind.  The three weaved through the farmer’s market and the ocean of hipsters buying their produce here rather than at a Cabbage Corp. supermarket.  One street light was still green, and Taya hopped across and twisted around to dodge oncoming traffic with her new companions on her tail.  When they reached the compound, Taya quickly pointed to her usual foothold in the side wall; but Aang didn’t bother to stop.  He cleared the height without even touching it.  Remnants of the flame lit up her eyes, and she jumped back fearing sparks. 

“Sorry, he doesn’t listen well,” the woman smiled.  She quickly bent the air around her and floated over the wall with just as much grace as Aang.  Taya gaped a bit, thinking of how many times she’d struggled to climb all ten feet to sneak into the compound.

“Come on, they’re waiting,” Aang smugly called.  Taya groaned and decided she’d show off as well.  She had been working on a technique that allowed her spirit and body to move independently of each other.  It had only been successful a few times, but Taya tried to find confidence. 

“It’s about to get rougher than usual in there, Snow,” she breathed, gently patting the pack she wore. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and appeared behind her physical body.  It took all of her concentration and made her feel head pound, but Taya willed her body to step onto her other’s knee and use it as a springboard to clear the wall similarly to Aang and the woman.  She returned to her body immediately, the headache somehow worse; but with a perfect landing, she knew it was worth it.  She untwisted the tie from her hair and shook it loose while releasing a very annoyed Mr. Snowball from the pack.  She removed her robe as well, folding and stuffing it back into the bag along with her tie; and returned it to its bush.  With the smuggest look she could manage, Taya winked at Aang and the woman simply laughed.  She pranced away, feeling awed eyes on her and relishing in the image of their surprise.

* * *

 

“Z’avi!  Em!” another tattooed air bending woman shouted in greeting as Taya, Aang, and the woman stepped through the door.  Taya looked back up at Aang in a moment of confusion.  It was the name she’d heard on Aang’s phone.  Had he been lying to her?  He certainly looked like the Aang in the tabloids.

 “Dad . . .” Taya’s tone didn’t match her respectful bow to her father as she entered the room.  She instantly ignored him, then, turning and bowing to their guests; Aang right behind her.  The other air bending woman bowed to her with a smile.  She was middle-aged – her hair graying and eyes crinkling.  She looked like the young woman from before.  And familiar . . . television familiar.  This wasn’t an average avatar search party. 

“Taya!” her father fumed.  “I can’t believe you!”  He followed her from the doorway, whispering furiously.  Taya shot him a look to remind him of his guests.  General Chen took a deep, slow breath.  He faked a smile at the air nation visitors and instead gestured that the two of them take a seat.

“Thank you, General,” Aang bowed to him slightly.  Aang and Taya took seats at opposite ends of the room.  She raised an eyebrow at him as she crossed her legs, and he raised one of his own.

“So, Lady Taya,” the tattooed woman began.  “I am Master Pearl.  This is my daughter Emerald, and you probably already know Aang the Second.  We and the acolytes have come to speak with you.”  Taya remembered her face then.  She was the granddaughter of one of Avatar Korra’s closest friends, and thus, one of the most well-known air benders.  “Please don’t be alarmed; but because you are a prospective avatar, we must bring you with us to the New Northern Air Temple.”

“Nonsense,” her father chimed in instantly.  Taya shot him another look, but he wasn’t acknowledging her.

“I . . . beg your pardon,” Master Pearl sounded as though she was trying to calm herself.  Through almost gritted teeth, she continued, “Regardless your obvious rejection of the idea, your daughter is incredibly gifted with spiritual techniques.  These would be techniques she could only possess as an avatar.”  Pearl loosened up and took a breath.  “Listen to what we have to say.”

Taya felt her heart flutter a bit.  It had been years since someone had echoed the small voice of reason in her head. 

Right?

“That’s what you said last time, but then you changed your mind and left us alone for ten years,” her father grumbled.

“Of course, the Harmonic Convergence sixty years ago granted people all over the world air bending abilities, which could also mean she is still just an air bender,” Aang sat forward in his chair, a smirk hiding behind his hands folded in front of him.  “We’re not saying she’s the avatar.  We’re saying she’s a _prospective_ avatar.”  Emerald mumbled something about annoyance at his tone under her breath, and Taya sent deadly laser beams in his direction.  They held a short staring contest while Master Pearl tried to bring strength back to her argument.  Taya noticed Aang’s hazel eyes then, a trademark of the Fire Nation.  It looked odd for him to be wearing Air Nation robes, but they also complimented those eyes.

_Uh, get a grip, Taya._   She thought to herself.  Yeah, she was lonely with only a thirty-something-year-old woman and fluff ball to call her friends, but this was a bit much.

“So, you see, it is important that Taya comes with us.  We can observe her training closely.”

Taya still wasn’t really paying attention.  Her dad was right for once.  This was nonsense with a half-baked excuse.  The Air Nation wasn’t trying to find the avatar; they were probably just trying to save face.  _Even still . . ._

“Dad, I want to go,” she finally said.  She had somewhat interrupted Pearl.  Her father started to retort, but she cut him off.  “It’s time we find out whether or not I’m the avatar.  It’s time I find out why I can do what I can do.”  Taya looked at her hands again trying to avoid his eyes.

“Yes, we would be assessing her abilities more closely at the New Northern Air Temple,” Master Pearl added.  There was a long silence.  Everyone looked to General Chen, lost in thought and scratching at his grayed beard.

“But my daughter has already been assessed-“

“And I’d be gone – out of the way.  No one would need to know I’ve left.”  In the back of her mind, she remembered the crowd recognizing her today.  Hopefully that would stay a rumor and no one had taken a photo of her and this elite group of benders.  Not to mention the fact that this elite envoy had probably arrived on sky bison.  That had to have attracted attention . . .

But that would be her father’s problem.  General Chen seemed to be likening to the idea.

“Truthfully, I don’t know that you have a choice.  You told us earlier that the Red Lotus attacked her!  She really needs to be under White Lotus protection.  And if we confirm that she is not the avatar, they will leave her alone, and she can return safely!”  Master Pearl seemed confident as though she had presented flawless logic.  Her father looked frustrated with the idea of having no “choice,” but Taya knew he couldn’t deny the advantages.

“Fine,” he blurted out.  “Leave me here by myself.  I’ll miss your eighteenth birthday.”

Everyone looked at him uncomfortably.

“I can go?” Taya asked with hesitation as though clarifying it would make him change his mind.

“I tried to guard you with some of my finest men when you were younger, but you convinced them that I was ‘misusing the United Forces’ resources’ and nearly caused a scandal,” he groaned slightly.  “I’m not sure what good it will do to have the White Lotus guard you instead, but it has to be safer than here where they know where you are.  And where you can run off to who knows where.”

“Lovely.  Taya, we’d like to leave as soon as possible.  We have limited time, and we can’t afford to-“

And Taya stopped listening again.  It was hard to find sincerity in Master Pearl’s words.  “Li Yin,” she whispered to her father’s advisor sitting next to her.

“Lady Taya?” Li Yin was caught off guard.

“Have my staff pack my things immediately.  I want to get out of here,” Taya massaged a growing headache on her forehead with her right thumb and index finger as she spoke.

“But Lady Taya . . . so soon?”  Li Yin couldn’t hide the sadness in her voice.  It troubled Taya’s heart.  Li Yin had been at her side for almost six years now.  She’d certainly been her favorite staff member and only friend – almost like an older sister.  Taya looked at the worry in Li Yin’s blue eyes and suddenly had an idea.

“Li Yin must come with me,” she declared.  The other conversation between Master Pearl and her father stopped. 

“Li Yin is . . .?” the young woman from earlier asked.

“My personal assistant – my body guard, really,” Taya smiled.  She stole a glance at Li Yin who seemed amused but pleased.

“And _a captain_ of the United Nation forces,” her father grumbled.

“Lady Taya, I couldn’t-” she breathed.  “To pack up my life here and just-”

“Li Yin, my father is retiring,” Taya turned in her chair to face her.  “Come with me.”

“Whoa, Master Pearl hasn’t-” Aang began.

“This is fine, Z’avi,” Master Pearl cut him off, shooting him a glare.  “Your attendant may come with you.  Not sure you’ll live to the same standard of . . . comfort you do here without her.  I recommend you _both_ pack lightly.  Otherwise, you may overwhelm our sky bison.”

Li Yin was smiling.  Once, she had told Taya how she had been born and raised all within Ba Sing Se.  It had been her dream to travel, but things hadn’t worked out well.  She had to be at least ten or fifteen years older than Taya, though she’d never asked.  Her bright blue eyes framed in black glasses were kind, so she trusted her anyway.  It was hard to remember sometimes that Li Yin was such a high ranking military officer.

“Then, we’ll leave this afternoon,” Taya professed standing and leaving the room before anyone could argue. 

She heard Emerald whisper a little too loudly to Aang, “My, she’ll be a handful, won’t she?” as Taya disappeared to her room to nurse her growing headache.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're enjoying so far! More chapters are coming soon. They just need to be edited one last time.


	4. The New Northern Air Temple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taya arrives at the New Northern Air Temple a little worse for wear and a little skeptical of Air Nation. But she can trust them. Right?

Riding on a sky bison sounded like it was going to be one of the worst things Taya had ever experienced.  She absolutely hated flying.  Motion sickness would have her queasy in minutes, and the animal smell certainly wouldn’t help.  She groaned.

“Why doesn’t the Air Nation have a fleet of air ships?” she grumbled.

“They do, actually.  But the ships are a lot less cute.”  The younger air bending woman called form the ground below.  She excitedly rode a puff of air to the saddle of the other sky bison.  Taya sighed deeply.

“Z’avi!” Master Pearl called.  “You ride with Lady Taya and her attendant.  There isn’t room on Beau, and we can’t leave them without protection.”

Aang/Z’avi groaned dramatically.  Well this will be fun, Taya thought – motion sickness and a grumpy driver; although, grumpy seemed to be his default emotion.  He propelled himself with fire again, effortlessly landing atop their sky bison’s head.

“You certainly like to pretend you’re an air bender.” Taya snickered.  He turned his head so that she could see his eyes rolling.

“I grew up an air acolyte.  What did you expect?” He turned back around.  “Besides, all the elements are related to each other in a way.  I guess since you can’t bend any of them, you wouldn’t know.”

“Shut up,” Taya snapped.  This trip was going to be uncomfortable for sure.  One of her staff offered a consoling smile after loading her luggage and gave her a pat goodbye.  Taya tried to return the smile.  Li Yin was apparently occupied with trying to comfort Mr. Snowball in his traveling crate, but Snow was obviously not impressed by the overall cage experience.  

“Taya!” her father called from below.  For such a big man, he looked small from atop a bison.  “You-” he began.   She just stared at him reaching for words.  “You be safe.”  His tone revived a pain in her heart.  He was thinking of her mother, she was sure.

“I will,” she said turning away from him. 

 

Taya looked out onto the horizon for as long as she could to avoid all conversation.  She was mystified by the colors in the sunset.  It was meant to calm her motion sickness, but focusing on it unfortunately only made her sicker.  Taya finally looked back into the saddle for her bottled water and noticed that Li Yin was out cold.  The last few days had been quite dramatic.  Taya almost wanted to take a nap, too.

“We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes,” Aang announced.  _Time really flies when you’re nauseated._   Taya crawled towards his end of the saddle to get a better view of a building in the distance.

“Whoa, is that it?  On that mountain top?”  She had to strain her voice over the wind.

“Yeah.”

“It looks exactly like the old temple used to look,” Taya commented.  Aang stole a glance at her.

“You know about the temple?” he asked.  “Yeah, Avatar Korra and Master Tenzin tried their best to restore the temple to the way it was when it was originally built.  Avatar Aang would have been heartbroken to see it burned like it was. . . A pile of charcoal, really.” Aang, for a moment, actually looked sad.  He must have learned so much about his namesake while living as an acolyte.

“The Red Lotus was actually responsible for its destruction, right?  In a battle with Avatar Korra?”  Taya tried to change the subject.

“Oh, well; actually, Mom had been imprisoned at the time.  The new Air Nation and her friends fought the Red Lotus there trying to save her.  They’d imprisoned everyone but Master Kai and Master Tenzin, really.”  He laughed darkly to himself, “They may have changed their mission statement, but their name and methods are the same even after all these years.”

“What are you talking about?”

“They attacked you, haven’t they?  The Red Lotus.  You’re not alone.  They’ve been attacking, kidnapping, and even killing people recently.  They’ve changed the game.  The Air Nation pretends not to take them seriously because the government is breathing down their necks, but it’s not helping anyone.  The White Lotus can’t and won’t do anything without their say.”

Taya wasn’t sure how to respond.  What she knew about the Red Lotus was strictly based on public knowledge and conspiracy blogs – like rumors that someone who had written a column about the Red Lotus using the term “terrorists” had disappeared.  She instead just watched as the sky bison approached the temple. 

“Regardless,” she shook her head, “I wish I’d had the opportunity to see the old one in person.  I heard it was magnificent.  Avatar Aang had once said that it had a distinct beauty.”  The sun was setting behind the mountain top, shading parts of the temple.  It was beautiful architecture.  From her periphery, Taya caught Aang staring.  “What?”

“Have you . . . studied much of the Air Nation culture?”

“Ah, well.  You know.  The avatar thing.  I’ve studied every nation’s culture and history.  My little mansion has a very big library.  And of course, there’s a lot of information online,” she laughed to herself.  It was silent for a few moments.  Taya regretted being too truthful.  He probably thought she was a nerd and, worse, delusional.

“Why exactly do you think you’re the avatar?”  Most people asked in a way that was hurtful, but he seemed genuinely curious.  Taya took a deep breath. 

“Avatar Korra has appeared to me twelve times now.  Each time, she tells me that I am the avatar, but also, I am not.”  She looked away just in case the inevitable skepticism would make her lose confidence.  “When I was just four years old, I could use spiritual projection perfectly.  I could travel to the spirit world at five.  Even though the Air Nation and my own father gave up on me being the avatar when I couldn’t bend, I knew.”  Now, she looked to him.  “I’m the avatar.”

Aang examined her face like maybe there was an explanation hidden there.  When he apparently couldn’t find it, he looked back to the air temple. 

“I hope so,” she thought she heard him say.  For the remainder of the trip, they sat in silence.

 

An unfortunate air acolyte helped Taya down from the sky bison Omma.  Normally well balanced, weakened ankles caused her to collapse on their arm.  Both of them nearly tumbled.

“I’m sorry,” Taya breathed.  “Flying doesn’t agree with me.”

Behind her, Li Yin gracefully disembarked.  Other air acolytes ascended to gather their luggage.  Like Master Pearl had recommended, Taya only brought the essentials – though, maybe more designer brands than necessary.

“Please follow me to your new quarters,” one air acolyte bowed to them respectfully, ushering them to the largest tower.

“Of course.  Lady Taya?” Li Yin could tell Taya was still feeling ill.

“Just get me to my room quickly, please.  I need to nap this off,” she told Li Yin quietly.  Li Yin nodded and offered her arm. 

Taya almost didn’t notice the intricate statues and the various Air Nation peoples wandering.  Despite the accurate restoration of the temple, they had added electricity and radio towers.  It was barely modernized, but it had the necessities of civilization.  Taya could at least do proper studying here.

“You will be staying in this room for the night, Lady Taya.”  The acolyte had led her to an unimpressive space on the bottom floor.  “Master Pearl has informed me that you are not feeling well.  We don’t want to make you climb those stairs tonight.   Tomorrow, we can move your luggage for you.”

Before the acolyte could speak any more, Taya found the bed and collapsed on it.  As an unpleasant surprise, she felt like she had just jumped on a solid rock.

“Ow!  What is _this_?” she moaned. She was far too tired and sick to deal with this right now.

“Ah, many newcomers find our beds uncomfortable.  I hear your permanent room is more luxurious, but I can’t say for certain,” the acolyte tried to sound encouraging.  Taya screamed into her pillow.

* * *

 

“You were _seen_ , Z’avi.  I can’t believe you!” Master Pearl shouted to the ceiling in her office.  Z’avi shut the door behind him.  She couldn’t even wait for him to come inside to yell.  “Give it ‘til morning and there will be a full page spread on it somewhere.”

“ _You’re_ the one who insisted on using sky bison.  You _wanted_ to be seen.”  Z’avi moved to stare down at Pearl.  She was actually quite short.  “And why don’t we talk about how you were completely manipulative back there?  How you lied, made me lie-”

“Don’t you dare tell her, Z’avi,” Master Pearl snapped. “Her cooperating means everything right now.”  Z’avi sighed and sank into the nearest chair.  “That report the other night has the council demanding action.  Rohan wants to keep searching, but I know we have to declare her.  It might be the safest thing, Z’avi.”

He stared at her for a minute, taken aback.

“You can’t possibly be serious.”

“I am absolutely serious.”

“It will . . . _ruin_ her.”  Z’avi thought of the way her vibrant eyes lit up even more when she talked about being the avatar.

“How?  Isn’t that what she wants?”

“It’s all she wants.  But, Pearl, she’s not.  You know it.  I know it.”  His heart hurt for her.

“And how do you _know_ that?”  Master Pearl sat down in her chair behind the desk.

“Oh, please, you were ready to officially reject her if Master Jinora hadn’t shut you down.”  Master Pearl rolled her eyes.  “And,” he swallowed.  “I just . . . I know.”

“Mr. Wise Aang, do share,” Master Pearl mocked him.  She knew he hated his given name.

“I can’t feel her,” he spoke in a low voice.

“Feel her?  Feel who?”  Her forehead tattoo twitched with her skeptical eyebrow.

“ _Mom_.”  Master Pearl’s face softened.

“Z’avi . . .”

“Stop.  I know; she’s not my mom.  I’m not stupid.  But I read that Katara could sense Aang in Korra – before the connection was severed.  I can’t sense my mom, Pearl.  Not even a little.”  Master Pearl stared into the wood grain of her desk. 

“Asami couldn’t sense her either.”

* * *

 

“Wait, who did you say is in there?  _The_ Taya?  No way!”

Taya rubbed at her eyes.  It was now dark outside.  Her shutter was open on her window and several air acolyte faces were trying to peer into the darkness.  Taya shivered.  A cool breeze coming in told her night had just fallen – something she rarely thought about in her well insulated mansion.

“I think she’s awake!  Let’s split!” came a loud whisper.  Louder footsteps rushing away seemed to vibrate her bed.

“Ugh.” Taya stiffly sat up and felt her bedside lamp for a switch.  The room lit up, blinding her.  When she could finally stand to look, she saw that it was very plain.  There were no decorations aside from the Air Nation symbol carved into the white wall.  It must have been an empty acolyte’s room.

A faint mewing from the corner told her no one had let out poor Mr. Snowball from his cage.  Taya tip toed over and released the latch.

“You poor thing,” she cooed while stroking his soft fur.  “Better not have peed in there.  You’re probably hungry.”

_Rap. Rap._

A timid knock on her door caught her attention.

“Yes?” she called.

“Lady Taya, please be ready for dinner in five minutes.  I will escort you.”  It sounded like the same air acolyte from earlier.  She hoped he wouldn’t be her official escort while here.  Her first impression was probably not her best. 

Taya found her luggage tucked inside the wardrobe by the bed, five cases organized in neat stacks.  When she unzipped the side of one of the smaller bags in search of a hairbrush, an envelope fell to the floor.  She bent down slowly to grab it, sensing she was still a bit weak from earlier.

_Taya_ it read.  It was her father’s handwriting.  The corner of her mouth twitched, and she put it back in the bag gently.  Whatever he had to say, it was either doubting her or overly emotional about her leaving.  She didn’t need that any more than she needed her rock-solid bed.

 

 “Lady Taya,” the acolyte immediately bowed when she opened her door.  She too bowed, but noticed she was much more light-headed than she should have been from just the usual motion sickness.  Taya grabbed the side of her head when a small pain came out of nowhere.  “Are you still not feeling well?”  The acolyte’s tone was filled with concern.

“I’m not sure,” she winced.  The pain was steadily growing.  Her stomach did a flip, too.  Mr. Snowball rubbed up against her leg, sensing her discomfort.

“It most likely is an altitude sickness.  We have a medicine for that, Lady Taya.  Follow me.”

While still holding her head and with Mr. Snowball in her arms, Taya followed the acolyte on a short tour of the courtyard between her room and the commons.  There were beautiful pillars, statues of gurus and monks, and gorgeous fountains.  They passed a statue of Avatar Aang on their way as well – another addition not original to the temple.  He and Korra looked nothing alike, she thought, but he carried himself with a very similar confidence that seemed entirely like Korra. 

“Perhaps he is your past life,” the acolyte smiled.  Taya smiled back; but honestly, she felt terrible.  If this was altitude sickness, she needed to get back down towards sea level immediately.

“Perhaps,” she managed to agree.  “Though, by technicality, not anymore.”  Before she launched into a history lesson refresher about the Harmonic Convergence, she was distracted.  From the corner of her eye, she saw White Lotus guards stationed at every door.  There must have been dozens of them in the courtyard alone – all very serious and armed with bending tools.  Taya wondered if they were all for her.  She wondered if that was necessary, Red Lotus or not.

Finally, they arrived at a brightly lit building that smelled of salad dressing and grilled tofu.  Taya was reminded of the all-vegetarian diet of the Air Nation.  Though she was ill, she suddenly had a strong craving for anything meat.

The acolyte slid open a door for her, bowing and ushering her inside.  He offered a hand to steady her as she walked, too.  She took it, not wanting to trip for her grand entrance.  The room was buzzing with chatter; and for a moment, no one noticed her.  Taya took that moment to glance around at everyone.  There was a smattering of tattooed air benders – most of them somewhat older looking – but the majority were just air acolytes or perhaps air benders in training.  It couldn’t have been more than sixty or seventy people, but it was probably the entire population of the temple.  Despite its political influence, the Air Nation was very small.

Once she had been seated, her attending acolyte left to prepare this magic medicine in the kitchen.  In the meantime, Taya laid her head against the table.  Salad and tofu were very, very uninteresting.

“Taya,” whispered Master Pearl’s voice.  Taya hadn’t noticed the room go mostly silent.  She picked up her head with all her strength.  Master Pearl’s eyes were stern as if to say ‘ _You can’t sleep here_.’  And also probably ‘ _Why is there a cat at the table?’_

“Ah, Master Pearl.  Lady Taya is experiencing altitude sickness,” her acolyte chimed in as he returned from the kitchen.  He offered Taya a glass, and it took the last of her strength to hold it and swallow whatever was inside.  It tasted bitter.

“Blegh.  Remind me to hang out further down the mountain,” she croaked.  Immediately, the room filled with light laughter.  Taya looked around, frightened.  Everyone was staring at her – laughing.  Across the room, Aang had what Taya could have sworn was a hint of concern.  Sitting next to him was a boy about ten years old who looked so much like Master Pearl and Emerald that Taya thought she might have started hallucinating.

“While it is important that Lady Taya meet everyone, please take her back to her quarters for the evening . . . before she turns greener than her salad.”  There was a hint of disgust in Master Pearl’s voice, yet Taya could tell it was her attempt at a joke.  Taya gave her the most sarcastic look she could muster.  It probably wasn’t much, but she was grateful. Meeting people, _eating_ – she wasn’t prepared for this.  The acolyte barely managed to escort her back to her room before she collapsed on the bed again; only this time, she didn’t really notice how firm it was.


	5. Sifu Taya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something strange is happening to Taya, but she won't let that stop her from kicking Aang/Z'avi's ass.

“Hey, listen to this!  _’Shocking:  Ba Sing Se University Exposes Epidemic Cover Up.’_ Ha.  They’re onto us again, lads.”  A deep voice chuckles in the blackness.

“What’s funny, cadet?  We aren’t exactly trying to get caught.  And neither is Zaku.” There was another voice – annoyed. 

“Are they really surprised, though?” There were too many voices.  Taya couldn’t tell who they were or how many there were or where they were talking.  Her mind raced.  

“Took them long enough.  Still barely scratched the surface.”

 “They’ve dug their own grave.  A small blog thinks it can post something like this without consequences?  Councilman Zaku will have them dead by the end of the week.”  _Zaku?_   Taya knew Zaku.  An infamous and polarizing politician. 

“Hey, this one, too:  _‘Air Nation Visits Former Earth Nation President Chen and “Avatar” Taya in Classified Trip to Ba Sing Se.’_   I see the Air Nation is as clumsy as always.  Now that we have _her_ , they really won’t know what to do.”  The voices laughed together.

Suddenly the blackness became red, and it grew brighter until it was a blinding flash that woke her.

 

_Whoa_.  Taya sat up slowly.  Mr. Snowball mewed softly from the foot of the bed and stretched.  She’d had strange, vivid dreams before, but her head ached like it did when she overused her abilities.  Taya rubbed at it tenderly.

“Wait,” she whispered to herself.  One of the voices had been familiar to her, but she couldn’t place why.  _What if it really had been spiritual projection? What if she had just overheard a real conversation?_

“Lady Taya!” someone called from outside.  She snapped out of her thoughts quickly, wrapped a blanket around herself, and ran to the door. 

“Ah!” she cried softly, opening it.   Hopefully her new room wouldn’t be facing the painful, rising sun.  Surprisingly, it was Emerald – Master Pearl’s daughter – framed in the blinding morning light.  This close, Taya could see just how much she resembled Pearl, though she was obviously a much younger version.  She was probably only twenty or so years old.  Taya waited for her to relay a piece of news or ask a question, but instead she seemed to be in awe.

“Wow, you’re really tall,” she breathed. 

“I’m sorry?” Taya pulled the blanket around her a little tighter.  Taya was quite tall to most women.  Few people had the guts to say it, though.

“Oh no, did I say that out loud?”  The girl shifted her eyes and put a hand to her mouth.  Taya waited for an explanation, but the girl didn’t speak.  Instead, she bent down and stroked Mr. Snowball’s soft fur.

“Um, what’s up?” Taya finally asked.

“Oh, right.”  She popped back up, much to Snow’s annoyance.  “My mom wants to know if you’re feeling well enough for breakfast this morning?”  She may be Pearl’s clone; but Taya had never seen the master with such a nervous look. 

“Actually, I think I might be.  I need to speak with your mom anyway.  Give me five minutes to get dressed.”

“Right!  You should probably not go out like that!”  She was definitely nervous.

“Yeah . . . be right out.”  Taya glanced at her pajamas.  It was just a pair of black shorts and a t-shirt – nothing embarrassing.  Maybe this was why their daughter wasn’t included in their political affairs . . .

Taya dug through luggage bags in search of a particular outfit but to no avail.  She should have been there to supervise the packing, but Taya realized she had already been feeling ill before they left.  Instead, Taya eyed an air bending training suit hanging in her wardrobe and thought, _Why not?_   The same red and yellow from their robes wrapped her body.  It was amazingly comfortable, though, she felt almost hot with it covering all of her.  Taya took a pair of scissors from her night stand and chopped the pant legs off mid-calf and a quarter of the sleeves from the arms.  Taya often looked in the mirror and felt plain; but today, she knew she looked like a force to be reckoned with – her usually hidden muscles accentuated.

“Oh, wow,” the girl commented when Taya opened her door.  “That one blogger was right.  You do look great in everything.”  Her cheeks were flushed.  This girl was definitely being intentionally hidden from the public.

“Well, this is what you wear to train, right?”

“And fight in general.  Wait, do you feel well enough to train?”

Taya thought about that.  She’d only taken one dose of that altitude sickness remedy, but she did feel amazingly better.  Taya didn’t feel tired or nauseated – just the slight headache she’d woken up to.  “I guess I do,” she said.

 

Emerald led her downstairs and through the courtyard again.  They followed the same path she had taken last night.  Everything looked somehow more brilliant in the morning sun.  Taya turned and gazed out onto the mountain range with wonder.  All was lush and green with wildflowers blooming in patches that made the slopes look splattered with colorful paint.

At the edge of the temple grounds and seemingly leading a group of practicing air benders was Aang.  He wore some alteration of the air bending suit she wore, but the color on him made his hair looked lighter today.  The way he smiled at the students, in fact, made him look like another person entirely.

_Meow._   Mr. Snowball mewed impatiently.  Taya was so distracted, she nearly got lost and separated from Emerald.  She hurriedly walked to catch up to where Emerald was apparently in the middle of explaining something.

“. . . so the older air benders won’t be here right now, but everyone else is eating breakfast!”  Emerald turned around with a smile. 

“Aang teaches them?” Taya asked as she gestured to the group.  It was one thing to be an acolyte, but it was entirely another to be a fire bender instructing air benders.

“Z’avi?  Yeah.”

“Z’avi . . . Why do you call him that?” Maybe Taya could finally find out.

“Oh, Aang was his birth name.  Z’avi hates it, though.  Avatar Korra did, too,” Emerald smiled.  “Thought it was _awkward,_ so she gave him an old Southern Water Nation name.  Super old apparently.”  The girl made a scrunched, silly face that looked extremely wrong with Master Pearl’s features.  “I don’t like mine either, by the way.  The whole jewel and gem thing is getting overdone in this bloodline.  Call me Em.”

“Noted,” Taya managed a smile.  She wasn’t used to people being so casual with her. 

 “Ah, Lady Taya.  Are you feeling well this morning?  Please, let me seat you,” offered a female air acolyte with light hair.  Taya bowed slightly to her.  The entire day would probably be like this.

Whispers of “Wow!” and “Look!” slowly overpowered all conversation in the commons.  Taya nearly blushed.  She hadn’t received positive attention like this since she was a small child.

“How are you?” a small, bald child in air bender training gear asked.  He had soft green eyes that seemed full of childhood innocence.  “Do you feel better today?”

Taya bent down to his level and smiled. “Much better, thank you.”

“Avatar Taya!  Can you really do spiritual projection?” someone shouted from across the room.  Taya looked up trying to find them, but soon there was such a buzz that she couldn’t even hear herself think.  The same spot in her head started to hurt again.  She winced and grabbed at it, but it burned all the same.

“Please, _please_!  Let’s settle down and greet Taya individually throughout the day.  Please don’t try to overwhelm her by the end of breakfast,” Master Pearl pleaded as she came through the door.  She was one of the oldest Taya had seen at the temple, and she certainly seemed motherly.  Of course, she was also an air bending master; so everyone in the room quieted down appropriately and proceeded to stare instead.  Taya nervously ate her non-dairy oatmeal with strawberries, but she was grateful to Master Pearl for making it slightly more normal.

Li Yin sat across from Taya eating quietly while Em disappeared into the room somewhere.  Li Yin had exchanged her usual business casual style for air acolyte robes, and the colors really brought out the tones of her bronzed skin.  Taya wondered who had given them to her.

A few more air acolytes came to introduce themselves but were politely shooed away by Master Pearl before she stepped back outside.  The murmurs of “avatar” and “pretty” and “can’t bend” throughout the room swirled through her head and made Taya unable to focus on her meal.

“Li Yin,” she finally whispered.  Lee Yin looked up at Taya with a full mouth.  “Why are these people calling me _Avatar_ Taya?  And where are the other prospective avatars?”

Li Yin choked on her oatmeal a bit.  She patted her mouth and coughed, looking as though she was actually stalling for time.

“Seriously, Li Yin, what’s going on?”

“I think it would be better if we discussed that elsewhere, Lady Taya,” Li Yin’s tone seemed desperate.  Air acolytes around them were staring intently, incredibly focused on the conversation.  Taya watched Snow lick at a bit of oatmeal that had spilled onto the corner of the table.

“She doesn’t want to tell you that you’re the _only_ prospect right now,” came Aang/Z’avi’s voice.  Li Yin’s eyes darted in the direction of the door.  Taya turned to see Z’avi stroll through the doorway by her table.  He had his acolyte robes thrown on, but they hung lose to reveal the training suit underneath. 

“What is going on, Li Yin?”  Taya questioned firmly.  She had a feeling that she was becoming part of the political game too early.

“Lady Taya-” Li Yin half-heartedly begged, but Taya turned to Z’avi. 

“What are you talking about?” she demanded.  Z’avi smirked, wiping his face with a towel.  “Be straight with me, air bender wannabe.”  Z’avi immediately removed his towel from his face to glare.

“Why should I, _avatar wannabe_?”  Taya shot up.  She wasn’t a short girl – Emerald had noticed – and she usually hated being so tall.  But in this moment, she wanted desperately to be just a few centimeters taller to be able to stare down into his arrogant eyes.

“Enough,” Pearl said, appearing behind him.  The word resonated through the room, which Taya noticed had gone silent.  “Go back with the group A benders, Z’avi.”  He shifted his gaze back to his master and nodded very slightly.  While staring at Taya, he grabbed a glass of water from the table and downed it as he left the room.  “That boy . . .” Master Pearl grumbled to herself while following him out.

“Why does he train the benders?” Taya asked – mostly to herself, her tone much harsher than she meant it to be.

“He trained to learn the movements just like any air bender.  His fire bending incorporates air bending forms.  It is kinda weird, but it’s also super cool!”  Em was making forms Taya had seen Z’avi use but also included sound effects.  Taya wasn’t even sure when she’d gotten back to the table.  Em noticed Taya’s discomfort and gradually stopped.  She flashed a toothy smile probably hoping to diffuse the tension.

“Right . . .” Taya walked around Em and out the door hoping for fresh air, Snowball prancing just behind her.  She spotted a bench at the base of the Avatar Aang statue and took a seat.  Snow jumped up beside her, meowing curiously.  As developed as Ba Sing Se was, this temple was much more remote than she was used to.  She wondered how amazing the stars would be at night and regretted being too ill for them the night before.

She looked over at the group that had been training earlier.  Z’avi and Master Pearl stood a short distance away looking furious.  They were engaged in an apparently heated discussion, but Taya couldn’t hear a word of it.

“May I join?”  Taya shouted at them.  “You and I need to finish a conversation as well.”  Master Pearl immediately turned.  Her angry expression melted.

“You really do look like an air bender in that!”  Master Pearl shouted as Taya walked over.  Taya didn’t miss how Pearl changed the subject. “Glad you’re looking well.  Of course you can join.  We’re about to resume a martial arts training session.  Probably won’t be as much use to you since you’re so . . . advanced."

“I could maybe instruct instead,” Taya suggested.  It likely sounded comical coming from the slim, pale, rich girl.  There was a snicker from somewhere in the air bender group. 

“That’s my job,” Z’avi cut in.  Taya turned to face him.  His angry expression hadn’t melted away.  He was slightly sweaty but otherwise physically perfect despite how winded the air benders were. 

 “You can join everyone else in sparring if you’d like; but I should probably warn you, I don’t teach to the lowest common denominator.”

“Z’avi!” Master Pearl snapped.  He held up his hands in a feigned innocence.

“No, it’s fine.”  Taya walked up close to him, Hoya looking down on her again.  “He’s underestimating me.  That’ll make it all the more fun when I show him up.”

Z’avi grinned.  “Go ahead and try.”

 

Taya didn’t even need to try.  Her opponents were mostly young air benders still focused on learning the fundamentals of their bending.  During these exercises, they were forbidden to use it, meaning Taya clearly had the advantage.  She took on four individual opponents – one she took down in less than thirty seconds even – but none could match her.  Taya glanced over at Z’avi and reveled in the fact that he couldn’t hide the surprise in his face.

Master Pearl walked over to him and whispered, “You really should let her help instruct-”

“One-on-one with regular rookies must be too easy.  Ravak!  Sara!  Chun Yi!”  Z’avi called to what were probably his top three students. 

“Bring it on, _Sifu Aang_ ,” she laughed.  Ravak, Sara, and Chun Yi seemed to think their teacher’s pride was on the line.  They came at her from all angles relentlessly and all at once.  Taya narrowly dodged some of their attacks until one caught her leg.  She cried out and almost fell but rolled and took down Sara with that same leg.  Poor Sara hit the floor and narrowly hit her head, but Master Pearl sent a cushion of air beneath her at the last second.

“Z’avi, this is ridiculous.  Taya is clearly skilled,” she quickly remarked with concern.  Taya struck Ravak in the gut with her right foot at that moment.  He clutched the spot and keeled over instantly.  “Maybe stop this before she sends _all_ your students to the infirmary?”

“Chun Yi, take her down!” Z’avi cheered.  Chun Yi looked incredibly nervous, and Taya rushed in to take advantage of it.  Chun Yi barely dodged a punch and tried a strike of her own.  Taya sprang back and flipped, then, catching Chun Yi’s jaw in the air; though she tried to keep it light enough not to break any teeth.  Surrounded by three defeated air benders, Taya took a bow.

“Thank you, thank you.  Unless one of you beats me, I’ll be here all week.”

Z’avi groaned.  “All right, _Avatar_.  You want to be Sifu Taya?”  He squared up into a battle stance.  “Survive a fight with me.” 

Taya immediately rushed in with a left kick to his face.  Z’avi looked like he might just take the hit, but Taya stopped her foot a couple centimeters from his jaw.  Master Pearl was complaining in the background, but neither of them heard her.  Both of them had really been waiting for this.

“Don’t go easy on me, Sifu Aang!” Taya tried to complete the kick, but he dodged quickly.  He matched every hit she made but couldn’t gain the upper hand.  Taya audibly laughed when she saw the frustration in his face.  Z’avi gritted his teeth.  She’d never seen him show this much emotion.  Briefly, Z’avi assumed a meditation stance and closed his eyes; a bit of steam released from his mouth.  When he looked at her again, he was calm and collected as usual; but there was a gleam in his hazel eyes like fire.

“Trust me, that wasn’t my intention,” he smirked and came at her again, this time much faster.  She nearly missed a fist in her stomach by bending back.  Taya sprang forward off her hands and kicked into his stomach.  It was enough to knock him back a foot, but he immediately grabbed her ankle.  For a moment, Taya dangled; but she pulled herself up and wrapped her other leg around his neck.  She propelled him forward towards the ground.  He stuck out both his hands to brace for the fall, then, instantly pushed back up with his arms. Taya kept her legs wrapped around his throat as he tried to grab her and throw her off.  Finally, with a roar of frustration, he made a jump to body slam her into the concrete.

“Z’avi, what are you doing?” Master Pearl yelled.  She tried to save Taya like she did Sara, but Taya was already so close to the ground.  Her arms braced for the impact just like Z’avi had done even though she knew his body weight and momentum would make her arm strength useless. 

Taya closed her eyes.  Everything was peaceful for that moment.  Then, her spirit appeared in front of Z’avi, grabbing his arm and yanking with everything she had.  It was just enough that Master Pearl’s air bending could cushion the impact.  Somewhat angry he was actually willing to seriously injure her, Taya’s body pushed back with enough force to throw him off.  Her spirit, still gripping his arm, threw him to the ground.  Taya’s body rejoined her spirit in that instant and she pinned him with a knee to his throat.  Her hands were in a fire bending stance that would have burned the flesh off of his face had she been able to fire bend.

“You can’t use bending.  It’s in the rules,” he huffed.

“I thought I couldn’t bend at all?” she smirked.

They stared at each other for a minute, breathing heavily and with angry glares.

“This is _enough_!  What a poor example to show your students, Z’avi.  The Air Nation does not go for the kill or even a serious injury.”  Master Pearl was tending to those Taya had fought earlier.  “I can’t say I agree with Taya’s style either, but you could at least see the hesitation to injure them in her strikes.  That leg could have broken Chun Yi’s jaw, Taya.”

Taya smiled down at him.  Z’avi groaned and threw her off.  Taya should have been able to steady herself, but something was wrong.  She collapsed.  The small discomfort in her head exploded.  It was the most painful headache she’d ever had – enough that she grabbed her skull and cried out. 

“Taya?” Master Pearl called.  She was writhing on the ground trying to steady her breath.  Somewhere, Mr. Snowball was meowing.  The hatred in Z’avi’s eyes was completely gone.  Now, he stood over her with eyes full of worry.

“I don’t think I did that . . .” he said almost to himself.  Taya gritted her teeth and sucked in a breath.  “No, I couldn’t have-”

Master Pearl was completely lost as to how to help.  She called for a healer, which of course brought everyone but a healer.  A crowd began to gather from the commons, all whispers of concern.  Em was among them, asking Z’avi what he had done _this_ time.  He didn’t seem to hear her, though, as he knelt down and wiggled his hands underneath Taya’s head.  She was scrambling to rip his head off until she felt a warm sensation slightly soothing the pain.  He’d used fire bending to create a hot pack with his hands.

“I’m sorry . . .” Z’avi repeated under his breath.

“Move!” Taya heard Li Yin running up, weaving through bodies.  She appeared beside Z’avi a moment later.  “Lady Taya, the headache is back?” Taya nodded, the movement making it worse.  She cried out again.  Li Yin waved her hands through the air – water gathering at her fingertips.  She placed them over Z’avi’s, and the water began to glow.  “I don’t understand.  This never happened before, but now it’s incessant . . .”

“Li Yin, you’re a water bender?” Master Pearl gasped.  Taya tried to look up at Li Yin to thank her for revealing her abilities but was so distracted by the pain she couldn’t respond.  A minute later, the combined efforts of Li Yin and Z’avi had soothed her enough that she stopped writhing.  A faint throb persisted just enough to make her uncomfortable, however; and now she felt incredibly exhausted.  Everyone watched her breathing in silence.

“You have to call a master healer,” Li Yin ordered.  “This isn’t normal.”

Taya couldn’t concentrate on the flurry of conversations.  With Li Yin and Z’avi’s hands still lain on her, she drifted out of consciousness; and everything became black again.


	6. Political Circus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Taya, the beautiful scenery and architecture of the New Northern Air Temple doesn't seem to match the two-faced Air Nation. Especially with bad news hanging in the air.

Taya stirred.  Tense, hushed voices filled her ears.

“You didn’t tell her when you were in Ba Sing Se?  Seriously?”  It was a man’s voice she didn’t recognize.

“How do you tell someone who’s been told her whole life she isn’t the avatar that she _has_ to be?”  This one was female, definitely Master Pearl.

“I mean no disrespect, _Master_ Pearl, but that’s not why.  You didn’t want to admit that she’s your last hope – that you were wrong!”  This was certainly Master Rohan’s voice.  She’d heard it many times on television.  It was deep and wise just as one would expect from the highest Air Nation dignitary after Master Jinora.  Despite his status, the way he spoke to Master Pearl still made Taya nervous.  She was no pushover even if she was his wife.

Taya opened her eyes.  She could feel the pressure of Mr. Snowball, steadily breathing, against her head.  He must be sleeping on her pillow beside her.

She felt like she’d been out for several hours.  She was in a new room this time – probably her actual room had she not been ill yesterday.  She was overjoyed that the bed she was lying in didn’t actually feel like solid rock.  This room was much larger than the other room, with a sitting area and a private bathroom.  That sitting area was occupied by a prestigious group of Air Nation dignitaries – all too preoccupied with their conversation to notice her waking.

“Master Rohan, I mean _you_ no disrespect, but this isn’t exactly a black and white situation.  If she decided not to come with us and instead shared that information, what would we have done?  We can’t let this go public!” Master Pearl’s voice was elevating with every word.

“Pearl!” Master Rohan shouted back.  He was immediately shushed by the other Air Nation dignitaries.  He looked a lot like the statue of Avatar Aang out in the courtyard – bald, but with a beard – and he held a staff for gliding just like Aang’s as well.  He looked exactly as he did on television, but she’d never seen him look angry.  “Oh, shush yourselves.  Pearl, your priorities are completely backwards!  If the world needs to start a manhunt for more prospective avatars, so be it!”

“There _are_ no more!  My teams combed the planet, Rohan!  There is _no one_ else!  Taya is the only person who can be the avatar!” Master Pearl and Master Rohan were now standing far too close to each other to be safe.  There was about a foot of difference in their height, but Master Pearl looked just as intimidating as he did.

“You mean the only one still living.  Maybe there’s another baby in a crib out there with a secret,” he sneered.

“Jeez!  Both of you need to calm down before Taya-.  Oh, Lady Taya!”  another older man with air bending tattoos and air acolyte robes she recognized as Rohan’s brother Meelo finally noticed Taya sitting up and very, very focused on what they were saying.  The whole room turned to her.  Master Rohan and Master Pearl lost most of the anger in their faces. 

“. . . so you’ve considered that the new avatar died as a child?” she asked.  “Maybe you’re looking for someone younger.  Or maybe they’re trapped in, say, an iceberg?” It was a thought that nagged at her brain every once in a while.  Her hand that had been petting Snow stopped.  The cat mewed in annoyance.  Master Rohan sighed deeply.

“Yes, we have,” he answered sadly.

“Prospective avatars have been a variety of ages from every nation the entire time.  We didn’t release that information or their identities the public to protect them,” Master Pearl added.  Taya sort of doubted that was the real reason, especially when Master Rohan glared at her.  Master Pearl smoothed her hair while making her way to Taya’s bedside and kneeled there.

“Taya, you’re the last prospective avatar,” she confessed.  “If it’s not you, there is no hope.”

Taya processed that for a long moment.

 “But that doesn’t make sense.  You can’t possibly have checked every single person on the planet.”

“We followed every rumor about unique benders very carefully.” 

“That doesn’t mean the Red Lotus didn’t get to them first, though,” Master Rohan chimed in.  Master Pearl shot him her own glare.  “Okay, yes, ‘but why would the Red Lotus still be attacking.’  Fine.”  He rolled his eyes, which looked odd for a famous man in his fifties. 

_This is too weird_ , Taya thought.   She remembered seeing the two standing together at balls and press conferences with nothing but smiles and professionalism.  They were celebrated as the next generation political power couple after Master Jinora and Master Kai and as diplomats to the world in the avatar’s absence.  Here, they were bickering almost like children. 

“I agree with Master Rohan.  You can’t stop looking.  I’ll help you, if I have to.”  Taya could feel her nerves tightening with every word, but it was the truth.  The world would have its avatar, even if it wasn’t her.  She would make that happen.

“You do?” Master Rohan breathed in surprised.  “I mean, of course.  There’s no telling what happened.  Maybe one of the other prospective avatars was the real deal, and now they’ve already been reincarnated-.” He stopped.  His eyes were a little wide like he’d revealed something he shouldn’t.  Taya tried to process what might have happened to the other prospective avatars. 

 “Rohan, _dear_ ,” Master Pearl spoke through gritted teeth.  “I know I’m the last person to say this, but maybe we need your sister’s help.  We should pay Master Jinora a visit.  See if she can . . . I don’t know, _sense something_.”

 “That’s a pretty big feat even for Jinora,” Meelo interjected.  They looked at him.  “I mean, if she could sense the new avatar, she would have already done it.”  Master Rohan groaned.  He and Master Pearl continued to talk about spiritual abilities and the logic behind their arguments, but Taya was lost in her own thoughts.

“Masters, Lady Taya,” Li Yin had appeared in her doorway.  “The healer has arrived.”  Beside her stood an old man in a plain, white coat which shrouded traditional Water Nation attire.  He was probably one of the best healers in the world. 

“Ah, yes.  Dr. Takka, thank you for coming so quickly.”  Master Pearl bowed to him in greeting.

“I think anyone would,” he laughed hoarsely.  “Your message was incredibly urgent.”

“Right.  This is Lady Taya, one of our prospective avatars.  She’s been very ill; and though she was not awake for a proper examination, our best healer thought she just had a severe sinus headache and a cold.” She scoffed.  Taya couldn’t help but agree that such a commonplace diagnosis seemed ridiculous.  Her nose wasn’t running or anything.

Dr. Takka approached Taya with a large bag of supplies.  When he opened it, Taya saw a miniature hospital inside.  There was virtually anything he could need to treat any disease or injury.  Mr. Snowball stuck his head inside curiously before being shooed away by Pearl.  Dr. Takka took down a list of symptoms from Li Yin: waves of nausea, painful headaches in the frontal lobe, occasionally losing consciousness.  Taya had practically been asleep since she got here.  She stole a glance out the window.  It was already early afternoon.

“While I,” he began, looking around nervously, “don’t want to worry anyone, these seem to be common symptoms of the epidemic.”  Everyone in the room gasped and began talking frantically.  Taya felt her pulse in her ears.  _Another epidemic?_   _Way to not worry anyone,_ she thought _._ There hadn’t been anything in the news about a new one.  Conspiracy blogs thought there was a new strain all the time, but their leads always turned up false.  If there was actually an epidemic, it would be the fourth string in the last twenty years.  Each was complex and deadly – such that the Katara Memorial Research Institute would require an entire year to crack it and concoct an antidote.  Usually, by then, most of the infected were already dead . . .

“May I please have some privacy?” Taya finally asked.  The dignitaries looked back to her.

“Taya, I apologize-” Master Rohan began.

“I need to be updated on your condition, Taya.  Especially if this is the epidemic!  Oh, God,” Master Pearl put her face in her hands.

“ _No_ , we can all leave.  You two are helpless.  I think we’ve overwhelmed this girl enough today.”  Master Meelo glared down at both Pearl and her husband with bushy brows that crinkled his tattooed arrow, but he looked as though he meant it to be playful.  “Can’t be good for her health.  Feel better, Lady Taya!”

Soon, all the dignitaries exited the room with guilty faces and a quick “we’ll still be here for you.”  Taya was left with only Dr. Takka and Li Yin.

“Now, tell me about this epidemic,” she ordered.

“O-Of course, Lady Taya,” Dr. Takka cleared his throat.  “About a year ago, we started hearing about this one.  It starts very suddenly like the others, and you know about the symptoms I’m sure . . . So far, there have been a few affected, and we believe this may be what has infected Master Jinora as well-.”  Dr. Takka cleared his throat furiously now.  Something told Taya he wasn’t supposed to reveal that.

“Master Jinora has been infected?” Li Yin asked in a loud whisper.

“Ah- but this epidemic, you see,” he cleared his throat again, “it’s not taken any lives yet.  The Institute feels that it’s _very_ close! And we don’t know for sure that this is what’s affecting you.  I’ll have to take a blood sample back to Republic City with me.  They should be able to analyze it quickly there.”

Taya hated needles, but she already felt terrible anyway.  She stuck out her arm and looked out the window.  The hills were still beautiful and green, but they didn’t make her as happy at the moment.

“Done,” he breathed.  Taya looked back to see several vials of her blood disappearing into a dark bag.  She subconsciously applied more pressure on the injection site as though she would bleed to death.

“That’s quite a bit,” Li Yin commented.  She’d stolen the words right out of Taya’s mouth.

“Just to be sure, we shall infect the vials with the other strains from the previous epidemics as well as other more common illnesses.  Those will be sent the Katara Memorial Research Institute.”  He tried to give an excited smile as if this was very cool and Taya should also think it’s really cool.  Dr. Takka cleared his throat loudly again when it clearly didn’t work.  “Now, I’ll give you something temporary and you’ll just need to rest.”

Another needle stick and a few minutes later, she was finally alone.  Li Yin had left to escort Dr. Takka “back to his airship,” but Taya knew he was likely going to the Air Nation dignitaries to relay the status of her condition.  She sat on her bed staring out the window for at least ten minutes before she couldn’t take being inside anymore.  Taya cracked open her door, ready to sneak down the hall and out to a balcony.  Instead, a curious White Lotus guard stationed just outside turned to meet her gaze.

“Ah, never mind,” she giggled and slammed it back.  Taya was beginning to like this temple less and less.  She sighed and leaned her back against the door.  “It’ll be the window then.” 

Her window was conveniently on another wall, around the corner from her door guard.  She ran up and peered both ways.  One end of the hall opened up to a balcony with a wide view of the mountain range.  Taya grinned and quickly hopped over the window sill.  She only wore pajamas – didn’t have shoes or even her meditation bracelet, but she didn’t care.  Taya tip toed to the end of the hall where the entire sky seemed visible.

_Wow_ , she thought.  Without a needle in her arm, this looked pretty great.  She hopped onto the railing and leaned against a column, taking it all in.

“Pretty sure you shouldn’t be outside, new neighbor,” called Z’avi’s voice.  Taya turned, prepared to give the most sarcastic look she’d ever made; but it became useless when she saw him.  Z’avi had been continuing his practice or something else that somehow required the removal of his shirt.  He was only wearing pants and a towel he’d thrown over his shoulder. 

“Whoa,” she accidentally said aloud.  Taya facepalmed immediately.  She needed to remember that she was mad at him.  Z‘avi tilted his head like he didn’t hear her, though.  _Good_ , she thought.  He walked up too close for her comfort.  There on his abdomen was a light purple bruise where she’d kicked him with everything she had earlier.  “Okay, hi, please go shower,” she immediately said.  Z’avi raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t see what my hygiene has to do with the fact that you could faint right off the side of this railing.”

“I’ve been sleeping for two days now.  I don’t wanna be inside anymore,” she whined and turned her eyes to the mountains.  She didn’t turn back for a minute or so, hoping he’d just assume she’s not worth the trouble and leave.  When she thought it was safe, Taya turned back . . . and almost fell off the railing.

“Why are you still _there_?  Wow.”  Her heart pounded like she’d really fallen – especially since Z’avi had grabbed her arm when she slipped.

“Uh, you’re welcome,” he said sarcastically.  Mr. Snowball appeared at his feet and Z’avi scowled.  “I can’t believe you actually brought this thing to the temple with you.”

“Mr. Snowball is family,” Taya said picking the large fluff up off the ground.

“’Mr. Snowball?’”  His nose crinkled.  “I don’t see you bringing your father?” he smirked.  Taya shot him an intense glare.

“General Chen would tell you take forty laps around this temple for that; but I am, fortunately for you, more civilized.”

“Look, I’m not here to pick a fight.  I heard that healer talking to the Masters Council on my way to my room.”  For someone so disinterested in everything, he was actually showing a hint of concern.  Taya wondered why he’d looked so guilty when she collapsed earlier.

“We don’t know for sure yet.  I’ll be fine.  Haven’t you heard?  I _have_ to actually be the avatar,” she laughed lightly.  Z’avi didn’t seem to find it funny.

“That’s sort of the problem.”  Now, Taya didn’t find it funny either.  “I’m sure Master Pearl has shown her less . . . _pleasant_ side to you.  She feels personally responsible for the missing avatar since Master Jinora is out of commission, and she practically idolized her.”

“And the problem is . . .?”

 “Are you kidding?  If you’re the avatar and you’re infected and die after all this time, she fails.  Master Jinora fails.  The Air Nation fails.  You don’t get to be the avatar.  No one gets to be happy.”  She hadn’t thought about that quite yet. 

“Right, because who cares about me unless I’m the avatar?  You certainly didn’t hesitate to try to crack my skull open this morning.  Ugh,” Taya grumbled.  “I’m pretty tired of this political circus already.”

“That’s not the point.  And I didn’t fight you for politics.  I fought you because you’re self-centered and arrogant, and arrogance doesn’t fly around here.”  He took a deep breath.  Taya stewed, thinking of a response.  “And you’re the one who told the reporters she was the avatar.  I’m not really sure what you were expecting.  Hasn’t your whole life been a political circus in that cushy house of yours?”  He seemed to laugh sincerely now.  Taya didn’t even think that deserved a response.  She hopped down from the railing with Snow in her arms and started for her room.

“Wait!  Taya!”  Z’avi cursed under his breath.  He ran up to her and jumped in front.  “Okay, I get it.  I shouldn’t have done that this morning; and you shouldn’t have to expect your life to be a political circus.  It’s not funny whether you are the avatar,” he swallowed, “or you’re not.”  His tone gave away that he was betting on the latter option.  Taya was hesitant to give him back the respect he’d lost. “Seriously, I get it, Taya.  _My_ life is a political circus.  My mother was the avatar, I was named after her previous life, my sister is running to become the president of the United Republic, and I’m one of the best fire bending masters even though I was raised by the Air Nation-”

“Wow, I’m arrogant?  How terrible it must be to be celebrated and respectfully treated like a human being,” she scoffed.  All concern in his face was gone.  She’d struck a chord.  “You know what, _Z’avi_?  Why don’t you search yourself online?  Why don’t you look at what they say about you?  And when you’re done, go ahead and look at what they say about me.”

“Taya-.  Don’t put words in my mouth.  We aren’t talking about fame.  We’re talking about you naively getting played like a pawn in Pearl’s chess game!” 

Taya ignored him.

“When you’re done rambling and looking yourself up online – when you see how different we are and how different it really is – then why don’t we try having this conversation again?”  Taya took a deep breath.  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just had a liter of blood drawn and should probably lie down.”  She swerved around him and stomped away a little faster this time.  She heard him mutter something like “spoiled brat.”  Taya sensed they wouldn’t be talking to each other for a while.


	7. The Most Dangerous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kept under guard, Taya finds out the Air Nation moved without her say; and she won't tolerate it anymore. She'll demand answers from Master Pearl if she has to beat it out of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, I'm a mess of a person~

“And welcome back to this week’s special episode of _Ba Sing Say What_!”  A television host wore a brightly colored suit with his arms spread wide, and he looked like he’d had some serious work done.  “We have quite a bit of juicy gossip for you this evening.  So you all already know that witnesses in Ba Sing Se reported seeing Lady Taya out in public earlier Wednesday with some of the Air Nation.”  The crowd whispered excitedly like they’d been paid to do it.  “Yes, yes,” the host used hand motions to calm them.  “But that’s not the best part!”

_Oh, no_ . . . Taya thought.  She was propped up on her bed with a dozen pillows and watching more television in the last several days than she had ever watched.   Z’avi had apparently told the White Lotus guards about how she’d snuck out, so now there was one stationed at her window as well; and there was no way out.  On the television screen, a photo of her and Z’avi – _holding hands_ , no less – showed them running from the crowd.  This . . . was a problem.

“Right?  Look at these two!” the host was hyping up the crowd far more than Taya thought necessary.  “And does he seem like your _average_ acolyte?  Who could he be?”  The crowd went wild.  He held out his hands as though to beg for silence.  It wasn’t going so well.  “Folks, we have some special guests here tonight to help us find out.”  Some dramatic music played while stage lights danced around him.  He walked to a giant pink chair and high-fived two guests on the couch beside it on his way.  Though Taya had never watched this cheesy gossip program, now she was too engrossed to change the channel.

The one sitting closest to the host looked familiar.  She wore a striking, green party dress that probably wasn’t practical for just sitting in these chairs for an hour. A banner at the bottom of the screen identified her as a celebrity fashion blogger that Taya was vaguely sure she followed.

“Okay, I’m no fangirl, but I’d recognize that hair _anywhere_.  That’s Aang the Second!” she gushed.  Whether or not she was a fangirl was pretty debatable.

“Aang, you say?”  He paused for apparent dramatic effect.  “Why would such a high-ranking official in the Air Nation visit Lady Taya, do you think?”  The host gestured to the other guest – an older woman in business attire who opened her mouth to speak, but the younger celebrity next to her was too quick.

“Obviously, they’re _dating_!” she gushed again.  Taya felt like her headache was returning.

When the crowd finally calmed down, the older woman eagerly threw in her two copper pieces.  A banner at the bottom of the screen identified her as an “independent journalist” and “political pundit.” 

“While your theory is . . . plausible, that really wouldn’t explain why a group of Air Nation dignitaries came with him.  Only the _elite_ ride sky bison – and there were two of them!  I tried to contact the central police, but they wouldn’t tell me if or how they gained the clearance to fly to the city like that.  Something this classified – the government is definitely involved.  Covering it up,” she speculated.  The woman was quite pleased with herself.  Taya wondered what kind of “journalism” she wrote to be so invested in conspiracies.

The host and blogger were silent a moment.  “Then maybe,” the blogger began.  Taya hung on her every word.  “It was a _secret wedding_!” The host clapped his hand over his mouth.  The audience roared again.

_Never mind._   Taya couldn’t do it anymore.  She changed the channel to some equally cheesy reality show about the metal bending police force in Republic City.  Whichever conclusion the gossip show was coming to, neither was good for Taya.  She watched the police drive around Republic City for a few minutes but couldn’t pay any attention; her mind was a mess imagining the imminent uncomfortable conversations.

In the middle of a shouting match between two feuding spouses featuring an officer clearly hating his job, a banner reading “breaking news” suddenly appeared on the screen.

“We have interrupted this broadcast to deliver this breaking story.”  It was an anchor from the Ba Sing Se local news.  “Just a few minutes ago, Master Rohan of the Air Nation held a surprise press conference at Republic City Hall to announce that the avatar has been _found_!”

“No,” Taya whispered.  She tore away her bed sheets and scrambled up to the television set.  The screen flashed to a clip of Master Rohan.  He was surrounded by microphones from every major media outlet despite how thrown together this press conference was supposed to be.

 “Yesterday, we were able to confirm the identity of the new avatar.  At this time, we will not be sharing their identity so that they may be able to introduce themselves,” he said. 

“Why can’t they do that now?” one reporter shouted at him.

“Is it General Chen’s daughter, Sir?” another shouted, slightly louder.

_Ring ring ring._   Her phone rang back on her bed.  Taya couldn’t move.

“I’m sorry to keep this so brief, but I won’t be taking any questions at this time,” Master Rohan responded bluntly, then, backed away from the microphones and exited the stage.  The roar of the reporters nearly blew out the television’s speakers. 

_Did that just happen?_

Taya was absolutely furious.  She threw the remote in her hand at the television, causing Mr. Snowball to jump and a crack to appear on the TV screen. Without hesitation, she grabbed her bracelet and threw open the door.  The White Lotus guard outside jumped in surprise.

“Lady Taya, what’s-“

She kneed him with all her strength in the gut.  However strong he was, Taya was dangerously angry.  He held his stomach and collapsed.  She had no time to lose as her White Lotus window guard rounded the corner as she turned.  With concentration, Taya sent her spirit behind him. _Gotcha_.  She stole the baton from his belt and had him down in seconds as well.  Her head was in massive pain as she ran.  Taya clenched her teeth as she took out two more guards on the staircase before anyone had started to notice.

Down below, no one got in her way.  A few White Lotus guards rushed past her to help the ones she’d taken care of, but none assumed she’d been the one who did it.  Taya smirked.

“Lady Taya!” Em rushed to her side.  “Are you okay?  Is someone attacking?”

“Where is your father?” Taya shouted and grabbed her robes.  The poor girl cowered a bit.  Part of Taya felt bad, but anger was a much more powerful emotion.

“My ‘father?’” she asked hesitantly.  “My dad’s not even here.  Hey, if you have a problem, talk to my mom.”

“Your _mother_ isn’t the one who just told the world you found the avatar!”  Taya felt like she was going to lose her voice at this rate.

“Whoa, chill.  You are, aren’t you?  Look, I know you don’t feel well, but he’s in Republic City.  Maybe it’s not your birthday yet, but they thought confirming it would help you recover?  Or something?”  This girl was really reaching. 

_Wait_ , Taya thought.  She loosened her grip on Emerald.  Z’avi had told her about what her dying meant for the Air Nation’s credibility.  _That’s why.  They think I’m dying.  They want to confirm it now while I’m still breathing so this doesn’t look like they screwed up._

Taya let go of the girl then.  Em immediately used a burst of air from her feet to slide away from Taya and called, “Hey flower boys!” to the White Lotus guards still rushing upstairs.

“ _Ah_!” Taya screamed into the wind, grabbing the back of her neck with both hands.  She felt angry tears coming, but she fought them back.  Taya felt wetness anyway, though.  It was beginning to rain. 

“This whole situation is making me sick – not some epidemic.  Not some _disease_!” She ripped off her cardigan spotted with rain and threw it at the statue of Avatar Aang in the distance.  It barely reached a bench near the base.

Taya tried to comfort herself and steady her breathing, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe she was really dying and that it was all a big joke.  The whole world that laughed at her was supposed to believe in her again?  Before she did?  In a few months, would it even matter if they did? 

She crouched down and stared into the elaborate tilework of the temple’s courtyard floor as if it could answer these questions while a familiar chest pain and wave of panic took over.  This wasn’t the disease.  This was her anxiety.  This hurt was familiar to her.

Soon Li Yin was there hugging her, rubbing her arm, and attempting to console.  Taya could hear a small crowd whispering around her, but she couldn’t focus well enough to care.

“Taya, Taya, Taya, I know.  You need to breathe, okay?” Li Yin cooed.  She reached out to touch Taya’s shoulder.

“I don’t get it, why isn’t she happy?” one person in the crowd asked another.

“Lady Taya!  Oh, you _really_ need to get back inside.”  Master Pearl appeared on her other side, grabbing an arm to guide her up.

“Don’t _touch_ me!” Taya snapped.  She ripped her arm away and gave a look that could kill.  The rain was starting to pick up, sticking her black hair to her face.

“Lady Taya-“

“NO!  I told you not to do this!  You can’t lie to everyone!  This isn’t some game, Pearl; it’s _my life_!”  Taya was breathing hard and right in Master Pearl’s face now that she’d stood.  Water dripped from her eyelashes.  She took a shaky breath trying to calm herself down.  “I’m dying, aren’t I?  That’s why you haven’t told me the results of my blood tests yet.”

Several air acolytes in the crowd whispered to each other.

“Oh, Taya, _no_ ,” Master Pearl breathed.  “Your results were . . . inconclusive.”

 

 

An air acolyte had given Taya a warm blanket and a towel along on the way between the courtyard and this lounge near the commons.  She’d run out into the open in nothing more than her pajamas and cardigan, and one of those was lying somewhere near the statue of Avatar Aang.  Li Yin sat close to her on the couch holding a stack of towels looking like she wanted to give Master Pearl the same lecture Taya had prepared.

“Dr. Takka contacted me just last night,” Master Pearl was tapping the screen of her phone, pulling up the message.  How nice of her to wait all day to share this information.  She handed Taya the phone a moment later.

> _Master Pearl,_
> 
> _Please share this update with Lady Taya:_
> 
> _The toxicology report from Republic City Labs does not indicate that you are infected with the strain I originally diagnosed.  I will be working on this more in the next several days.  For now, I have sent a medication of my own creation which will make your symptoms more bearable._
> 
> _We will be in touch,_
> 
> _Dr. Takka_

“’Inconclusive,’” Li Yin repeated Master Pearl’s word from earlier.  There was another file attached with charts and percentages detailing her medical mystery, but they were nonsense to her.  Everything just screamed “infection” and “death.”

“Your medication should arrive very soon.  Hopefully, you’ll be well enough to announce yourself quickly.  We really can’t leave that much time between Rohan’s announcement and your own . . .”

_Ugh_.  At every step of this painful process, Master Pearl was demonstrating how little she cared for Taya as a human being.

“That’s not my problem, _Master_ Pearl.  This message says I have some weird or mutated strain of the epidemic, doesn’t it?  You can tell everyone Mr. Snowball is the avatar for all I care.  It’s time we cut the nonsense.  I need to see Master Jinora!  I need to know how to speak with Avatar Korra again so that she can tell me who I’m supposed to find before I keel over!”

“You-,” disbelief colored Master Pearl’s face.   “You’ve spoken with Avatar Korra?”

“Of course I have.   Many times.”

Master Pearl’s mouth hung open.  “Oh my God,” she whispered.  “You’re the avatar!”

“Uh . . .yeah?”

 “I don’t understand!” Master Pearl was basically a mess.  She put a hand over her mouth.  “But you can’t bend!”

“Yeah, that’s sort of been the problem.  I get that.”  Taya was really enjoying this.

“Why haven’t you shared this before?”  Master Pearl now had her head in her hands.  She was probably thinking of how she’d ignored all the other facts for so many years because of her inability to bend.

“I have.  Many years ago.  The Air Nation representatives said they were probably just dreams.  Look, try to pull yourself together.  I’d like to have a frank conversation with you about what’s going on.” 

“Well,” Pearl swallowed.  “What would you like to know?”

“You can start by telling me why you just lied to everyone.”

Master Pearl began to word vomit her explanation in life story fashion.  It all apparently began with Master Jinora.  Jinora had been personally insulted by the propaganda some politicians had put out about the role of the avatar following Avatar Korra’s death.  While they “respected” what Avatar Korra had done and praised her, they declared that the age of the avatar was over – that the avatar was nothing more than a public figure and a relic.  Jinora made it her mission to prove them wrong.  She _had_ to find the avatar.  This meant she often had to physically travel to the different nations herself while dragging along her husband Master Kai.  They simultaneously represented the Air Nation and the avatar, which usually involved advising the President’s Council and their councilmen.  This brought the previously neutral Air Nation onto the grand political stage as well.

“Okay.  Then, why you?  Why lie?”  Taya wasn’t going to let herself be persuaded so easily.  Pearl sighed before continuing.

“To me, Jinora is a role model.  An icon.  She’s like a second mother.” As Jinora traveled the world and gained political power, Master Pearl was always behind her – studying bending and politics.  Though more from behind the scenes, Master Pearl had spent a huge portion of her life involved in Air Nation politics in order to preserve the title and the role that the avatar plays.

Vaguely, Pearl spoke about Jinora’s illness.   She said that when the master suddenly couldn’t make public appearances anymore and Master Kai had been preoccupied with helping her get back on track, Pearl and Master Rohan stepped up as interim Air Nation leaders.  That happened to be around the same time that Taya turned sixteen.  With the exception of Avatars Aang and Korra, every other avatar before them had been declared on their sixteenth birthday – and the two most recent avatars were declared before even then.  Naturally, the media attacked her and the Air Nation without mercy, saying again that the avatar was gone – not needed anymore.  They’d survived sixteen years without them and would continue to do so.  Taya remembered that.  It was a hard time for her, too, with reporters even jumping the walls of the military compound.

“I couldn’t let them smear us, smear Master Jinora.  Avatar Aang didn’t bring down the tyrannical Firelord and dedicate his entire life to reviving the Air Nation for a few news anchors to tear us down in a week!”  Master Pearl had a sort of fire in her eyes.  “I know you think my methods are unethical, but Taya, I will do _anything_ to protect us.”  From the short time Taya had spent with Pearl, she didn’t doubt it.  “Back then, I appeared on every show and shut them up.  I tripled the search parties.  We found anyone who was born that day and possessed any special bending ability.  Three of them we brought here, but it was all meaningless.  One of those prospective avatars had even staged their bending demonstration back in the Fire Nation!” she huffed.  “We really thought that was the one.”

“What about the others?” Taya asked.  She’d remembered Pearl mentioning it back at the military compound and then again in her room.  Master Pearl seemed incredibly worried by this question, though.  “The _truth_ , please.” 

“Fine.  I guess since you’re going to be our avatar now.” she sighed.  “They disappeared.”

“What?”

“The first, we traced their mobile phone to an alley in Republic City.  All we could find was a white lotus pai sho chip with the flower painted red.  We haven’t had a lead, but . . . I was ready to officially reject them.  They weren’t the avatar.  I swear it to you.”

_What was going on?  Why did it seem like the Red Lotus wanted all traces of the avatar dead?_

“The other was witnessed bending fire and air by an acolyte in one of our search parties, but we have never been able to prove anything.  They vanished in the night after arguing that they had been kidnapped and taken here . . . We didn’t pursue them too closely because we feared public backlash.  But the acolyte who discovered them was later revealed to be stealing artifacts; so honestly, we wrote off this prospective avatar anyway.”

“Do you think the Red Lotus took them, too?” Taya wondered aloud.

“The Red Lotus . . . the counsel won’t let us tell you, but they’ve grown so great in number that the government can’t contain them anymore.  We believe small chapters have emerged in every nation and major city.  But they’re more than just organized crime.  They’re terrorists.  There are rumors that the government is involved, and I’m afraid to say that I have the same doubts, Taya.  They want a revolution, and they want it to be bloody.”

“It sounds like they want the avatar dead, too.”

Master Pearl nervously played with the tattooed skin on her hand.

“Mom!” Em rushed in through the archway.  She stopped when she saw Taya.  “Ah, this package arrived.  Talk about priority shipping.  They only put the sticker on here twelve times.”  She was holding a small cardboard box and gesturing to the excessive shipping labels that covered the sides.

 “Thank you, Em.”  Master Pearl smoothed back a hair out of place and took the package from her daughter.  She sliced the tape that sealed it with a blade of air from her finger, and it popped open.  “Ah, this is it.  He said you’ll need to mix it with water and drink twice a day.  If you don’t, the symptoms will likely immobilize you.”  Master Pearl handed the box to Taya. 

“Okay,” she said taking it.  There were small baggies with powdered mixtures inside.  “Paralysis doesn’t sound like a fun time, so I guess I should.”  Em let out a laugh that was just a little too dark.

“Taya-” Pearl began.

“If we’re done with this drug deal, I have a question for you, Taya!”  Em smiled brightly.  Taya almost laughed at the sudden humor, and tried to hide a smirk.  She wagered that this wasn’t the kind of joke that Pearl appreciated.

“Em, _please_.  Let’s all talk more in the morning.  You look like you really need that dose right now,” Master Pearl smiled and reached for Taya’s hand.  Taya shrank away, surprised that Pearl thought this conversation made up for what had happened.  Pearl looked dejected.  Taya could never really understand what was going on in her head.

“We aren’t done here, Pearl.  You owe me an apology.  And a confirmation that you won’t keep up this charade.  I’ll protect your Air Nation, but I’ll do it by seeing Jinora and seeking Korra’s advice.”  Pearl pursed her lips, but stayed silent.  _So stubborn.  Still won’t apologize_ , she thought in annoyance.

“I’ll lead you up the stairs and help prepare the first dose, Lady Taya.” Li Yin helped her stand and took the box.  They bowed slightly to Master Pearl and to her daughter.

“Do you need a body guard on your way up?”  Em asked as they passed her.

“I’ll be fine, thanks.”  Taya smiled lightly at the gesture.

“I was talking to Li Yin, actually.  No one around here more dangerous than you,” she grinned.  This time, Taya really did laugh. 


	8. Birthday Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taya and Z'avi make moves of their own to resist the Air Nation. Who is an enemy? Who is a friend?

Z’avi sat along the railing at the balcony outside his room.  He was breathing in the fresh air that still smelled of rain.  The sun was setting.  Recently, he felt like he needed these moments of peace away from the rest of the temple chaos; and he knew it had everything to do with Taya.  If it wasn’t her, it was the fact that she was here, riling up the other acolytes.

_No wonder the media eat up her stories_ he thought.  _Spoiled brat brings drama with her wherever she goes_.

It was bad enough that their rooms were just a few windows down from the other, but she stormed out to cause a scene at least once – maybe twice – a day it seemed.  He supposed this was his karma for insisting he stay in the visitor’s quarters even though he’d been here pretty consistently for a few years now.  Z’avi couldn’t help it, though.  The beds were infinitely more comfortable.

A vision of Taya’s face in pain haunted him every time he thought of her, though.  Even after preaching that he couldn’t recognize his mom in Taya, he couldn’t help but think that Taya’s pain was his mother’s as well.  The way Taya had reacted to Master Rohan’s announcement, there had to be doubt even in her little overconfident heart; but it didn’t keep him from feeling incredibly guilty.  Z’avi groaned and scratched the shaved side of his head.

When he gazed into the mountains again, he noticed something moving in the distance – something flying toward the temple.

“Is that an air ship?” he whispered to himself.  As far as he knew, the temple wasn’t expecting any arrivals.  He hopped off the railing and took out his phone.  He rarely even touched the thing; but after being scolded by Master Pearl for not answering once or twice, he at least always kept it on him.

_Are we expecting an air ship?_ he typed.  Z’avi slipped the device back into the pocket of his robes and headed for Master’s Pearl’s office for good measure.  He passed Taya’s room – now with three times the White Lotus guards.  Z’avi smirked thinking of how she’d taken out several of them earlier. 

He hopped over the railing of the staircase to cut down time.  A short burst of flame at his feet cushioned the impact.  Z’avi rounded the statue of his namesake and ran up the staircase on the opposite end of the courtyard, dashing past a couple of acolytes.  He took pride in the fact that this was probably a new record for reaching the office from his room.  That is, until he overheard the conversation just beyond the ajar door.

“Rohan, I know you won’t regret this.  Of course, I’ll take responsibility.  Who do you think I am?”  Master Pearl seemed to be using her phone.  No wonder she hadn’t answered yet.   Z’avi reached to push open the door.

“The advisors should be here any time.”  He stopped.  That air ship he’d seen earlier . . . Master Pearl must have meant to hold an emergency council meeting.  “I know you’re hurrying, but I hate to make them wait.  We have to do something about Taya.  Dr. Takka says it’s just like the epidemic, but only that Taya must be stronger than the others.  It’s affecting her differently.”  Z’avi was puzzled.  From what he had heard, the Katara Memorial Research Institute wasn’t sure what Taya was infected with.  “I know you want to tell her, Rohan, but Taya isn’t one to keep quiet.  You know that.  It’s just like with Master Jinora.  If we don’t move forward with planning the second conference and declare her, she’ll be bed ridden; and it’ll be too late.  We need to make a declaration before then so we can buy more time to confirm or search!  You know this is the only way.”

Z’avi’s eyes widened.  He cupped his mouth with his hand, not wanting to be heard.  Of all the rotten things Master Pearl had done to save face, this was crossing a line.  Did Taya know?  Z’avi turned on his heel, determined to do something – anything.

* * *

 

Taya sat alone in her room.  The calm breeze from the late evening air rushed in and whipped her hair, but she didn’t notice amidst her thoughts.

Taya didn’t dare turn on the television in her room.  Surely, on every channel, she’d see her own face displayed on a screen behind a news anchor or a talk show host.  If she opened her laptop, she’d find nothing but photos of her and Z’avi and endless speculations about her being the avatar or a fake backed by the government.  Instead, she surrounded herself with silence and with the familiar, purring comfort of Mr. Snowball in her lap.

_Hooooonk._

Taya almost jumped as high as Snow.  _What was that?_   She scrambled out of her bed, startled from of her thoughts.

In her window with an arm around the now annoyed White Lotus window guard was Emerald, holding a party horn.

“Happy birthday, Taya!” she beamed.  Taya gaped.

“You cannot be serious.”

“What?  Is that date wrong?” Em scrunched her nose.  She braced her arm on the window sill and hopped over into the room.  “I read it on some fan blog, but I guess you never know.”  Taya sighed deeply.

“They weren’t wrong,” she grumbled.  “But are you seriously here right now?  Your mom told me they tripled the guard-”

“It’s your birthday isn’t it?  Is it not the perfect time?”  Before Taya could argue, Li Yin appeared from the darkness of the window.

“Lady Taya!”  Her assistant was holding a small gift.  She had the brightest smile, and in her hands was a tiny square package tied inside a bit of Air Nation traditional robe fabric.  Li Yin too hopped into the room.

“Li Yin, this really isn’t necessary.”  Taya gave her a half-hearted glare.  Li Yin simply shoved it in her hands.  The fabric of the wrapping was soft.

“Lady Taya, please.  This is important.”  A look in her eyes conveyed that she was telling the truth.  Hesitantly, Taya undid the knot at the top and unveiled a plain black box.  It was made of faux leather and decorated with the seal of the water nation.  Taya gave her assistant a look.  “It’s not mine.” Li Yin immediately put out a hand as if to refuse Taya’s thought of returning it.  “I was told it belonged to Avatar Korra.”

Taya ran her fingers over the emblem embossed on the lid.  The gentle waves were so carefully stamped and illuminated with gold flakes.  Taya expected something precious inside – maybe a family ring or a golden piece of jewelry – but she removed the beautifully crafted lid to find a simple bead.

It was small and cylindrical, and it was decorated with various shades of blue that signified the water nation.  Taya curiously rubbed it with the tip of her finger; and the smooth surface was like glass.  It was a hair bead.  If it belonged to Avatar Korra, it was a bead used to tie back her hair.

Taya looked up at Li Yin, wondering how and why she had come to possess it.  Li Yin only smiled.

“It’s a family heirloom,” she explained.  Before Taya could ask her to explain, Li Yin said, “I’m not directly related.  Of course not.  But along with my dagger, it was the only thing my parents passed along to me.”  Li Yin’s past was always shrouded in mystery, but Taya always eagerly waited for the bits she was willing and able to share.

“Then I suppose I should wear it,” Taya smiled.  She gathered a bit of her hair and nearly slipped it in, but caught herself.   _An avatar should recognize past possessions_ she had read once.  She gazed at the bead, searching herself for this recognition.  “No,” she spoke softly.  “This belongs in your hair, Li Yin.”

“Lady Taya-“

“No, it’s only right.”  Without waiting for argument, Taya tied up a section of Li Yin’s gray hair and placed the bead gently.

“Oh, of course.  You’re a water bender!” Emerald appeared behind Li Yin.  “You’re water nation then.  Which nation?”  Em rubbed her finger along the smooth glass of the hair bead now in Lee Yin’s hair.

“Not sure.”  Li Yin lost the small smile on her face.

“Pardon?  It’s just the north and south, isn’t it?” Em tilted her head. 

“I lost my parents very young in Ba Sing Se,” she said.  Li Yin stared into the floor.  “I’m not sure of how they got there or where they came from.”  Li Yin had a tone in her voice that Taya rarely heard.  It filled her heart with a heaviness that reminded her of the way her father sounded when he talked about her mother.

“Oh.”  Em was also now staring at the floor.  Taya guessed that Em wasn’t used to conversations as serious as this.  Kept away from politics and always cracking jokes, Em had to be as carefree as can be.  “Then,” she spoke after a long silence. “Sorry, I’m curious.  Is this why you have an Earth Nation name?”  Li Yin made a small smile.

“Yes.  It came from my house mother.  She ran the orphanage in the South District where I was raised.”

“Oh . . .” Em seemed at a loss for words.    True to Taya’s impression of her character, though, it didn’t last long.  “Well, Taya, this isn’t how I pictured your big birthday surprise.  Let’s pack away our emotional baggage for a bit, okay?  I brought a cake!”  She gestured to a box she’d left on the table by the window.  “It’s vegan, though.  You know, I don’t think our kitchen even has eggs.”

 “Sorry, Em.  I’m not one for sweets.  And speaking of baggage, I’m leaving this place,” she declared.  Em and Li Yin looked at her but said nothing.  “If I have to play a game, I refuse to play theirs any longer.  I’m going to find Master Jinora myself.”  Taya placed the water nation box in Lee Yin’s hand. Taya felt those familiar, ominous butterflies of doubt irritating her stomach.  She didn’t want to feel them any longer.

“Lady Taya-.  Fine.  But this is _your_ gift.”

“And I choose to have _you_ take care of it, Li Yin.  You should pack it.”  Taya smirked as she saw the realization appear on her face.  She was coming, too.

“Of course, my lady.  But don’t think we’re done talking about this.”

Taya was slightly shocked at the tone, but ignored it and went to her wardrobe to begin immediately.  She grabbed the knob that decorated the front and-

“Taya.”  It was Em’s voice.  Taya glanced at her.  She was surprised to hear seriousness color her tone.  “I . . . take me with you.”

“What?” Li Yin and Taya spoke simultaneously.  Em nervously glanced at them both.

“I know neither of you know me, but I promise I’m an accomplished air bender and fighter.  Mom says I’m the fiercest, actually.  I’m also the only one in this generation with any sort of spiritual abilities-.  Well, aside from you, Taya.” She grinned apologetically.  “Let me go.  Let me protect you.”

There was a long silence.  Taya hadn’t considered needing protection on her journey.  But if she was going to be evading Red Lotus and Air Nation alike, perhaps she and Li Yin wouldn’t be able to do it alone.  But at the same time, Taya barely knew Em.

“Fine,” Taya finally answered.  A brilliant smile grew on Em’s face.

“I’ll go pack immediately!” she bowed.  Em hopped over the window sill again and disappeared almost instantly.  Taya pulled open her wardrobe and began stuffing clothes back where they had originally been.

“Lady Taya,” Li Yin’s voice was full of concern.  Taya didn’t turn away, worrying that Li Yin’s motherly eyes would make her give away her true thoughts.  Instead, she fumbled with a side pocket on a piece of luggage.  The letter her father had written was sticking out and preventing it from zipping closed.  “That girl . . . she’s a tad strange, don’t you think?  Not to mention her mother.  Are you sure? I think I’m sufficient protection.”

Taya couldn’t hear her.  In her hands was the opened letter.  On United Forces stationary and in his familiar scrawl, General Chen had written only four words:

> _Don’t trust them, Taya._

“Yes, I’m sure,” she breathed.  “We’re going to leave first without her.”

* * *

 

Master Pearl took a seat again at the long, cherry wood table that filled the temple’s conference room.  She thought of it as an optimistically long table – meant for the large and strong nation they hoped to one day be.  Today, though, she had just delivered her report on Taya’s condition to a group of five.  Pearl had her advisors, of course – two of the oldest air benders who were originally Master Tenzin’s students as well as Master Meelo who was unfortunately her brother-in-law.  Not to mention ever-skeptical Z’avi and her husband.

_This is a tough crowd_ , she thought.

“Thank you for saying your piece, Pearl.  Master Rohan, I’d like to hear your thoughts as well,” one of the older benders remarked.  Pearl scowled.  They always treated Rohan with more respect just because he was a descendent of Avatar Aang.

“Of course, Master,” Rohan stood and nodded respectfully at the man.  Pearl’s scowl deepened.  “I would like to respectfully disagree with my wife.  However, I agree that Taya, if nothing else, must be quarantined with Master Jinora at the embassy in the Southern Water Nation.”  Both of the older men at the table looked exasperated.

“Surely one of you sees how detrimental it might be for Taya to be seen being transported.”  The older of the two furrowed his bushy brow.  “Young Z’avi, what do you think?”

“I think I’d rather you tell the public the truth,” he said while staring down at his hands with apparent disinterest.  Pearl groaned.  Meelo laughed.

“Z’avi, please.  This is a strategy meeting.  I let you stay because you asked to, so please take it seriously.”  Z’avi looked up at her.  He had the stubborn look in his eyes that told her he wasn’t going to behave.  As long as he’d been living at the temple, he was like a son; but she’d never been able to stand his stubborn streak.

“Master Pearl, I am taking this seriously.  This is a web of lies, and all we’re doing is weaving it to catch ourselves in our own trap.”  Z’avi placed both his palms flat on the polished wood of the desk.  He seemed to move to stand, but the younger of the old men whipped out an air bending glider and placed it no more than a centimeter from where Z’avi’s fingertips lie on the cherry wood.  Z’avi tensed and glared up at him.  “I’m sorry, am I not allowed to remove myself?”

“You will behave or you will no longer be considered an honorary master, young fire bender.”  Z’avi smirked, visibly attempting to prevent himself from laughing aloud.  “Something funny, child?”

“First, I _am_ a master – a master fire bender.  Second, I am a man. Third, whenever I misbehave, you always resort to threatening my status – as though it was something you could threaten.”  Z’avi’s eyes became dangerously dark.  “Don’t pretend that you don’t need me here.  That your pitifully small Air Nation doesn’t need me to instruct while you parade around pretending to be Avatar Aang or _their_ father,” he glanced at Meelo and Rohan.  “That if you stripped me of my honorary rank and the public found out, the world would just finally see what you all truly are.”  Pearl knew he’d crossed a line, but she couldn’t scold him.  Something in his words rang so true that she’d been stunned to silence; and it appeared she wasn’t the only one.  Finally, it was the younger of the two advisors who spoke.

“Don’t be so cocky, Aang the Second.”  Z’avi made a face.  “We are only afraid of the same thing your parents were afraid of; and we are only trying to protect anyone else we can.”

“Ha.”  Z’avi pushed up from the table.  “You’re only trying to protect yourselves.”  He made his way to the door and turned.  “And my moms were never afraid.”

“Well, that wasn’t who I-”

“Z’avi, you asked to be in here to say something, so say it.”  Pearl smoothed back her hair and waited for a response.  He smiled at her – a suspicious smile she recognized from a much earlier time when she’d found him sneaking out at night.

“Too bad.  I already did – just not to you.”  Pearl felt an awful feeling grow in her stomach.

“Did _what_ , Z’avi?”

“You should really use your phones more.”  He laughed.  Meelo sprang up from the table, narrowly catching a glider Z’avi would have had to the face.  The older of the advisors wore a face of vicious anger.  Z’avi met the man’s eyes, and his smile widened.  “You don’t even know what I’ve said.”

“ _I_ do,” Pearl stood up as well.  “Do you know what you’ve done?  The danger you’ve put everyone in?” Z’avi’s smiled loosened.

“I do.”  He pulled out his phone and threw it on the table.  It slid across the table to where the oldest advisor stood.

 “ _Master Jinora and Prospective Avatar Taya Ill? Air Nation Insider Tells All.”_

“You foolish boy.  I’ll take more than your title from you!”  The advisor threw Z’avi’s phone into his chest.  Z’avi simply smirked and pocketed the device before turning toward the door.

The room was incredibly tense.  Then there was a loud crash like an explosion.


	9. War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An sudden enemy attack stuns the air temple just as Taya and Z'avi were about to escape the Air Nation's manipulation. Now, they must fight to protect it.

It was such a tragedy to leave behind her beautiful clothes, but Taya managed to select a few pieces that were easy to pack.  She felt a light sweat break over her back as she quickly hauled her travel bag and Snow to what Li Yin called “the shipyard.”  Taya may have also over exerted herself helping to knock out the White Lotus guards stationed around her room – as silently as possible, of course.

A few lamps lit the way along the edge of an infrequently-traveled path that supposedly led to a hanger where the temple kept several air ships.  Taya was almost convinced that the Air Nation actually didn’t believe in air ships when they finally made their way down the mountain to a massive metal structure built into its face. 

“Whoa,” Li Yin whispered as they approached a large door.  She held her hands up to a strange lock on it and felt the patterns carved into the metal.  “It’s an ancient lock – I think it requires air bending.”

“That’s neat,” Taya remarked, wondering why such an ancient locking method was being used.  “It’s also, uh, unfortunate.  How do we get in?”  But before she could finish her breath, Li Yin had gathered water from nearby flowers and sliced through the metal rod locking the door from the other side.  She gave it a shove, and the door rolled open with a squeaky groan.

“Remind me not to piss you off, Li Yin,” Taya laughed with awe. 

“It was only meant to look like the ancient lock, I guess.  A fake,” Li Yin commented following Taya through the door way.

Inside, it was pitch black.  Taya heard Li Yin grab a lever and pull, and a soft hum filled the room as the roof peeled away slowly and showed Taya those stars she’d thought about a few days ago.

“Oh no,” Li Yin’s tone was troubled.

“What is it?” Taya immediately started searching the darkness for threats.

“There’s a Republic City air ship here.  Visiting dignitaries.”  Li Yin swallowed hard.  “But that’s not it.”  She pointed to the ship closest to them.  It seemed massive up close, but it was smaller than most of the others that filled the hanger.

“It’s not?”

“It’s that,” Li Yin pointed. It was missing the Air Nation insignia, for one thing; but it was also ominously lit where the main deck would be.

Suddenly, from somewhere up the mountain, Taya heard an explosion.

* * *

 

Z’avi braced himself on the door jam, then, shoved the conference room door open and ran down the hallway.  Noises of startled acolytes and benders drew him to the courtyard where Avatar Aang’s stone head lay against the top step of the stairs leading down, severed from its body.  Z’avi felt his heart beating out of his chest.

“It’s an attack!” one of his students screamed from below.  Z’avi’s eyes darted around trying to take in as much as possible.  Aside from bits of stone Aang lying around the courtyard and dozens of startled Air Nation people, everything seemed to be fine, and he couldn’t see an enemy.  He almost breathed a sigh of relief, but then a thought occurred to him.

“Taya,” he breathed.  He turned around and used a post to pull himself up onto the roof.  With a few steps backwards and a deep breath, Z’avi ran and leaped into the air.  He managed to propel himself across the courtyard with fire and land atop the balcony just outside Taya’s room.  Horrified, he saw that all the guards stationed outside had been knocked out.

“Taya!” he shouted, kicking open her door.  Her visitor’s room was deserted, even somewhat ransacked.  “There’s no way,” he murmured to himself, checking every corner.  She was gone.

He ran back outside to the railing that overlooked the courtyard.

“Find Lady Taya!” he shouted to the crowd below.  A few of them looked up, but the rest were too loud to notice.  “Taya is-“ 

“You don’t know where she is either?  That’s unfortunate,” said a voice from behind.  Z’avi didn’t recognize it at all.  He turned around, changing to a stance for battle.  At that moment, the stranger sent a burst of fire into his face.  Z’avi twisted his arms and the flames were consumed by his own.  The remaining sparks lit up the darkness and the stranger’s face, revealing eyes that were distinctly like fire.

“A fire bender?  That must make you Aang the Second,” the stranger’s face smirked.  “Hoped I would find you.”

“But what does that make you?” Z’avi asked, adrenaline beginning to surge in his veins.  The man just smiled at him.  Somewhere below, there was another explosion.  Z’avi jumped then and sent a shot of flame towards his opponent’s eyes.  The man ducked and swung with a leg.  Z’avi narrowly avoided it by tucking into a roll mid-air.  He landed next the man and barely missed another attack by swerving to the right.

Z’avi sensed that this would be more difficult that he anticipated and sprang backwards into a flip – putting as much distance as he could between them.

“What does that make me?” the stranger sneered.  “It makes me stronger than a _soft_ traitor like you.”

* * *

 

Taya could feel her heartbeat in her ears.  She looked left and right, but she could still barely see inside the hanger.

“What was that?” Li Yin had withdrawn the blade she kept hidden on her always.  In the distance, someone screamed.

“I don’t know, but I can bet who it is!  That damned Red Lotus.” Taya felt a surge of pain again.  She grabbed at her skull.  Snow mewed from the bag slung around her.

 “I’ll give you three guesses what they’re here for.  And it’s not the rock solid beds in the acolyte rooms.”  Taya called to Li Yin. 

“Taya, no.  We have to leave.  We move one of these ships, they’ll notice.  They’ll follow.  We can draw them away and then hide.” Li Yin grabbed one of Taya’s bags and tugged.

“Li Yin-” Taya began to protest, but changed her mind.  “Then it’ll be a fight in the air.  We _will_ draw them away.”

Another explosion sounded from the distance. 

“Lady Taya, you’re in no condition to-“

“Shut up, Li Yin.”  Li Yin’s eyes widened.  Taya had never spoken to her like this.  “Help me power up this air ship.”  Taya looked back at the open door. With a mew from Snow, Taya she picked up her bag and began walking to a ship Li Yin had marked as belonging to visiting dignitaries.  Li Yin was reluctantly behind her, not saying a word.  Taya hoped she was making the right choice.

* * *

 

 

Z’avi was breathing hard.  The sash that tied the shirt of his robes had caught fire.  He’d barely gotten it off in time, and now it was burning to ash at his feet.  Whoever his opponent was, they must be a master bender.  What business did he have attacking the New Northern Air Temple?

“I thought you’d been specially trained or something?  Hmm?” the man taunted.  Z’avi _had_ been.  He’d been trained by the best.  He’d been regarded as one of the best.  “I guess there’s only so much you can do, since you tainted your blood.  You’re a disgrace.”  The man spat. 

Z’avi flinched.  He hadn’t heard words like this since he trained at the Western Air Temple.  When he’d go into town, some older Fire Nation people would whisper these things to each other or give him dirty looks.  Animosity towards foreign nations and the united government was still prevalent in some places, and Z’avi with his Air Nation robes and politician sister was a walking example of what they hated.  A traitor.

“If I find any bodies down there,” Z’avi growled, “you can bet I’ll take your life.  You’re not my kin.  They are.”  He stood and shrugged off the shirt of his robes, then, moved into a strong stance.  His white undershirt was already smeared with ash and bits of blood.

“They really ruined you,” the man shook his head.  He squared up as well.  Z’avi closed his eyes a moment and breathed in and out just as Master Izanami had once told him.  He honed in on the sound of his own heartbeat, and the rise and fall of his chest.  Calm and clarity entered his mind.  When he opened his eyes again, he knew exactly what to do. 

Z’avi moved in a way that only he could – incorporating air and fire – and felt the energy surge from his palms.  He threw sharp knives of flame like daggers at the man, who barely evaded them.  One nicked his leg and he cried out.  The man grabbed at the wound and looked up at Z’avi with dangerous eyes.  Z’avi sprinted at him in his moment of weakness and swung a leg at the man’s face.  When the man managed to dodge, Z’avi spun and sent his elbow deep into the man’s back.  Z’avi thought he could hear the crack of a rib. 

“You brat,” the man gasped, searching for air to breathe.  He moved a hand to send a weak burst of flame at Z’avi’s side, which he easily evaded.  Z’avi swung his leg into the back of the man’s knees, which instantly buckled.

“I’m not a traitor,” Z’avi explained, catching the man before he collapsed. “You are.”  Z’avi grabbed his skull and kneed him in the face.  The man’s eyes glazed as he fell over on his back.  Blood dripped from his nose.  In the clear view of the moonlight, Z’avi saw a tattoo exposed on the man’s chest:  a lotus flower painted red.

 

“Master Rohan!” Z’avi shouted helplessly into the mob below.

Down in the courtyard, all was chaos.  Z’avi scanned his eyes, searching for his masters.  Some of his students were battling men that appeared to be with the one he had fought.  They wore the same military-like gear.  Some of them were also fire benders, but Z’avi noticed that some could bend earth and even water.

_What is this?_ he thought.  Even from the horrors he’d heard from Master Pearl about the Red Lotus, this seemed uncharacteristic of them.  A direct attack on the Air Nation was more than just violence.  It was war.

“Z’avi!” he heard Master Rohan’s voice shouting up at him.  Z’avi’s eyes darted below.  His master’s robes were singed and his glider was missing.  “Is Taya with you?”

“No,” Z’avi called down.  If she hadn’t been found yet, the Red Lotus must have her.

“Find Taya!  Get her out of here!  Hide her!”  Z’avi nodded.  He knew that Master Rohan was right.  From what the man he’d fought had said, they were looking for Taya; and would only leave if she did.  Z’avi bent down to retrieve his robes from the ground and hopped over the side of the balcony.

There was a small walking path that led around the side and into the back of the temple. Since she wasn’t in the temple, Z’avi knew she must have been dragged off to be thrown on their air ship.  He rounded the corner and could already hear the purr of an engine.  And he saw Em running for the hanger as well.

“Z!  Hurry, they’re going to take off!” she cried, not stopping for him to reach her.  His heart pounded as he sprinted down the stairs along the mountain that led to the ship yard.  The door stood wide open and the roof was retracted.

Z’avi ran faster than he ever had, the ship already lifting away from the ramp and the door was shut.  Em, clinging to the hatch that was already closed, lowered a hand to help; but he knew he could make it.  He leaped and reached for the handle alongside the hatch.  With one hand clutched around it for dear life, he reached the other to bang on the hatch as loudly as possible.  They waited impatiently for a sign that he’d been heard.  Just when they thought they’d have to take their ride from outside the ship, the hatch released with a hiss.

“Oh my God,” Taya breathed.  She reached out and wrapped her hand around Z’avi’s forearm.  “Li Yin, I need you!”  Z’avi looked at Em, trying to think of a way to pull her after him.  He looked for another hand hold, foot hold, _anything_ – and he saw it.  Two hundred feet below now, another ship began to lift off.

“Em?” Li Yin exclaimed after appearing at the door.  “You, too?” She took Z’avi’s other arm and the two women yanked him inside.  They proceeded to do the same with Em until everyone was lying on the floor breathing heavily. Em reached up and slammed a button on the wall, and the hatch began to close again.

"Thought you were captured." Z'avi breathed heavily on the ground.  Taya shook her head.

“While that’s all exciting,” Li Yin shoved herself up and hustled to the captain’s station further inside, “I could use one of you stow aways as a co-pilot.”  Z’avi, breathing hard, pushed himself up and off the floor.

“It’s not just us,” he huffed.  Everyone turned to look at him.  “There’s another ship right behind you.  And I’d bet good money I don’t have it’s the Red Lotus.”

Taya smiled.  “So it _is_ the Red Lotus.  That's fine.  They took the bait.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More to come~ Starting to get to the end of what I had already finished writing, so 3-chapter posting is probably a thing of the past now. :,(


	10. Battle in the Clouds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taya and Z'avi zoom across the sky to invade a Red Lotus ship and possibly develop a fear of heights. Badassness ensues.

“Keep it flying, Li Yin!” Taya wasn’t sure how well her body would hold up in battle, but she was about to find out. She darted for the ladder that led to a flat platform on the top deck.  Just out of ear shot, Taya wondered, “Hope you know how to fly . . .”

“Are you going out there?” Em called just as Taya had reached the ceiling hatch and slammed the release.

“You think I’m going to stay in here?”  Taya forced the mechanism and shoved open the hatch the rest of the way.  She didn’t have time to be patient.  “Li Yin probably can’t gather enough water up here on this cloudless night to battle, but the rest of us will be fine.  Come up here with me and leave that to Li Yin!”  Em and Z’avi didn’t argue.

Up top, there was a strong breeze.  It was definitely colder on the surface of the air ship.  Taya almost regretted ditching her jacket down on the captain’s deck.  She was impressed by the speed the ship was gaining despite its small size.  Maybe they could even outrun the Red Lotus without incident.

Of course, Taya knew better than that.

“That’s it!” Em pointed over the railing and into the darkness.  Taya and Z’avi joined her, also spotting a rising shape – bright lights piercing through the night sky.

“It’s still a few hundred meters below,” Z’avi said.  He already looked disheveled from some battle back in the temple.  Taya wondered how bad he already was.  “Not sure if they took off without the others.  I don’t know if they plan to leave the temple at all.”  Em suddenly looked extremely uncomfortable.  “I don’t suppose there’s a chance you can metal bend, is there?”  Z’avi looked down at Taya.  She rolled her eyes and shook her head.  “Figures.  That air ship is definitely steel.”

Taya analyzed it.  It was somewhat beaten up, but Z’avi was probably right.  It was about twice the size of their vessel and completely encased in some metal – just like the ship they were flying.  They had to be both in traditional ships, then, powered with a combination of light gas and fuel.  They weren’t the fastest ships but offered more extensive cargo space and stealth abilities.  Most ships now were made of a kind of reinforced plastic to counter metal benders, but not these.  She searched her mind for strategies; but every single one required her being on the ship.  And possibly to not return from it.

“Get me on that ship and find me a way off,” she ordered.  Z’avi made a face that said he was definitely not interested in taking her orders.  “Stop.  Z’avi, I can possess the pilot and bring down the ship.”

“Oh my God,” Em breathed.

“Possess?  Are you serious?” 

“I’m not lying.  I’ve done it before.  To you even,” she glanced at Z’avi.  “But I can’t do it without being able to see the person I’m possessing.  Get me on that ship.”

“But Taya,” Em began with a tone of confusion.  “Aren’t you, like, super ill?  And won’t you go down with the ship?”  Z’avi opened his mouth to protest, too.

“I know the press doesn’t listen to me, but this is ridiculous.”  Taya turned and faced them.  “Get me on the ship.  Get me a way off the ship.  Now.”

 

“That doesn’t look stable.” Z’avi was the least enthusiastic about Em’s plan.  He and Taya stared at the detached door that originally led to the roof.  Em had used her air bending to loosen the bolts and screws, and the detached hunk of metal now lay on the platform.   “I’ve seen you bend, Em, but I still really don’t know about leaving my life in your hands kilometers off the ground.”

“Don’t be a baby, Z’avi,” Em smirked.  “Taya’s fine with it, right?”  Taya didn’t speak.  Intense butterflies in her stomach told her very much so otherwise.  “Oh, boo-hoo, some brave warriors you are.  Look, just hop on; and hold on.  I’ll get you on that ship.  When I see the signal, I’ll bring it back over.  In the mean-time, I deflect them away from our ship.  It’s simple.”

 “It’s suicide,” she heard Z’avi say under his breath.  She had to admit she agreed.

“Just get on,” Em sighed.  Taya hesitantly stepped onto the sheet of metal.  As far as Em’s advice to hold on, Taya wasn’t really sure where she was supposed to do that.

“Crouch down,” Z’avi told her, pulling her down with him.  She tried to think of herself as Snow balancing carefully on a railing.  Then, she banished that thought remembering all the times that fur ball had fallen from the railings in her home.

“I hope you have a plan B in the works in your head,” Taya whispered to him.  Z’avi opened his mouth to respond, but Taya suddenly felt the ground leave beneath her.  “Whoa, Em!”  Taya gripped the edge of the metal hard.

“Remember the signal!” Em called up to them as she waved her arms and sent a burst of air under the hatch that sent them flying.

And they flew.

Taya bit her lip to stop herself from screaming.  She could taste the copper of her blood.  With her eyes wide open, she saw the Red Lotus air ship closing in faster and faster; but something was wrong.  They were no longer on the right trajectory.  The ship was rising too quickly.

“Z’avi-” she strained her voice over the wind.

“I know!” he yelled back.  “Grab my arm.”  Taya didn’t have time to ask why.  She wrapped her free arm around his.  A moment later, a burst of flame from his other arm propelled them slightly upwards.  It was a valiant effort, but it wasn’t going to be enough. 

“ _Ah!_ ” she shouted in frustration.  She knew what needed to be done.  Taya’s eyes glazed as she concentrated her spirit beneath the hatch and shoved.  Z’avi shouted in surprise, but Taya’s last shove got them just close enough that Z’avi could reach out with his arm and grab the railing that lined the platform on the roof of their air ship.  He cried out.  Taya returned to her body; but even no longer dead weight, she was still too much for his one arm.

“What was that?” she heard voices above them.  They’d be there any second.  Taya knew it’d put more strain on Z’avi’s arm, but she swayed her body to create a momentum.  He grunted, but didn’t say a word.  After two swings, she caught her leg on the railing and pulled herself up.  _Really thankful for all those core workouts right now_ she thought.  A Red Lotus fighter was already there, grabbing at her hair. 

She gritted her teeth and sent a jab into a pressure point she knew would temporarily cripple his hand.  When he released, she pushed herself up and over the railing and butted her head into his.  He grabbed at his skull and took several steps back.  She winced and grabbed hers as well.  Taya could already feel the massive headache beginning, but she had to make herself endure until they reached the captain. 

When she removed her hand, Taya took in the sight of eight men on the roof – all dressed in military gear, though not anything that belonged to the United Forces or any country she recognized.

“I take four, you take four?” she heard Z’avi’s voice.  He was beside her rubbing his shoulder.

“I was thinking five for me, three for you,” she smirked.

“Cute, kids.”  The first man spoke. Taya was wrong.  There were nine.

Taya ducked just barely in time.  The familiar face of the one who had attacked her in Ba Sing Se startled her even more than the presence of a ninth man.

“I thought I already took care of you!” she taunted.  The man scowled and swung a leg to kick her.  Taya dodged by flipping over his leg and closer to Z’avi who was in a very similar situation.

“Do you know that guy?” he huffed.

“Yeah, I put him in prison,” she breathed, blocking an attack from another Red Lotus.

“Didn’t do a good job there.”  She could hear the smirk in his voice.

“Shut up,” she snapped as she sent a hard left into someone’s jaw.  She felt teeth break.

“You’d think a military prison break would be hot news.”  The man she’d first fought in Ba Sing Se leaned against the railing just watching the fight.  “Alas, I don’t think your dear old ‘Dad’ has any intention of telling anyone.”  Taya glanced over at him, wondering what he was implying.  In that moment, another Red Lotus struck her hard in the gut.  Taya gasped, clutching her stomach.

“Taya!” Z’avi called out, but she had already collapsed.  She flattened to the floor when the same man tried to kick her while she was down.  Barely missing his attack, Taya reached out and gripped his ankle tightly.  The man tripped and began to fall, but managed to shake his leg free.  As he tried to regain balance, Z’avi aggressively shoved him straight into the railing.  The man hit his face and collapsed instantly.

“Ooh, what a violent acolyte,” the Ba Sing Se attacker laughed.  He still stood off to the side, enjoying the show.  He seemed to be the ringleader here as well.  Taya pulled herself off the ground – her stomach bruised and her head pounding – and took a step toward him.  Five of the original eight were knocked out and unmoving.  Taya hoped, for her own conscience, that they were still breathing.

“How did you get out?” she asked, but she’d never get an explanation.  Two of the Red Lotus were on Z’avi like flies, and the remaining man noticed her weakened state and rushed her.  He moved his hands in a strange but very familiar way.  Her eyes widened.  _Fire bender_.  Her heart pounded, and her head hurt; but she knew the only way she was going to avoid death.  Taya closed her eyes and concentrated.  Her body went limp.

Z’avi turned suddenly, having put distance between himself and his opponents.  His eyes were wide.

“Taya?” he whispered.

Taya opened her eyes – well, not _her_ eyes.  She saw Z’avi’s face of horror and the satisfaction on the other Red Lotus’ faces.  Her Ba Sing Se attacker, though, had a look in eyes like he understood what she’d done.  After all, he’d seen her do it before in Ba Sing Se.  Taya raised her hands and waved them as though she was going to attack Z’avi. 

“Stop her!” the Ba Sing Se man yelled.  The other Red Lotus looked on in confusion just as Taya struck them with a barrage of fire.

Taya laughed aloud, and her laugh was that of an older man – deep and throaty.  All of her countless hours of studying fire bending, this was the first time she was able to make it work.  The other Red Lotus went down in seconds, and they lay limp on the ground – exhausted with their clothes searing to their skin.

“Taya?” Z’avi whispered.  His eyes were full of fear and wonder.

“Ha!” the leader filled the night air with an eerily delighted laughter.

“Something funny, _boss_?” Taya sneered.  The man peeled himself from the railing and took several steps towards her and Z’avi.  Both of them assumed defensive positions.

“You seem so full of joy burning my men to charcoal.”  Taya smiled.  She did.  “Oh, the irony of it.  You're laughing, but you don’t even realize why it’s so funny!”  He laughed again.  Taya’s smile disappeared instantly.  “You really don’t?” She bared her teeth.  “Well then, I can tell you.  You see, all that time you spent trying to bend fire, but it works now.  Do you know why?”

“Stop talking,” Z’avi growled.  Taya looked back and forth between them.  

“This is the proof you wanted!  All your studying . . . All the knowledge in the _world_ can’t make you a fire bender!” the man laughed.  “In the end, it’s blood – your body and soul.  That's was really makes you what you are.  And you, Taya, are no avatar.” 

Taya wasn’t sure what compelled her, but she took a step back.  She felt her defensive stance crack.  She glanced at her lifeless body laying ten feet away.  She looked weak.  She looked dead.

“If you,” she swallowed.  Even with the voice of an older man, it came out weak and broken.  “If you don’t think I’m the avatar, then, why?  Why did you do this?”  The man sneered.

“Well isn’t that the golden question.”  He raised a hand.  Suddenly, a transparent figure materialized in front of her and latched onto her throat.  Her eyes bulged and she desperately clawed at its fingers for air.

“Let her go!” Z’avi shouted.  Taya recognized his stance as a fire bending move that would melt the man’s face.  The leader rolled his eyes to fixate them on Z’avi.  Never mind his stance or the hatred in his eyes – Z’avi looked a mess.  He could barely hold up one arm and all over his robes were tattered and singed.  

“I have to give it to you, Taya,” he began.  “I’m not nearly as skilled at remotely implanting my energy in another person.”  Taya stopped writhing.  _What did he just say?_ “Unfortunately for you both, though, I can manifest my energy far longer than she can.  Especially right now.”

“What?”  Z’avi loosened his stance.  “Energy?”  The man’s eyes flickered with amusement.

“It means I can stand here all night and choke the life out of both of you and not even need to physically move!”  His laughter rang through the air again, this time, chilling Taya to the bone. 

“No,” Taya choked out.  She writhed and kicked, but she’d been so weakened that the manifestation barely flinched.

“Something you might not know, Taya,” he smiled, “just like you feel this man’s pain; you will feel his death as well.”  Taya did know it.  Returning to her own body, though, surely meant a crippling headache and the end of her being able to fight.

“Taya!”  Z’avi moved his arms into position again.  “Taya, go back!”

 _Think Taya_ , she screamed at herself.  _Think_!  She looked at Z’avi’s stance, trying to decipher what he intended to do.  The positioning of his hands, the set of his shoulders, the placement of his feet-

“You aren’t supposed,” she choked, “to bend.  It’s in the rules.”  She saw recognition flicker in Z’avi’s eyes.  They were seeing the same pattern of fire bending moves that she had threatened to use when she had her knee at his throat at the training grounds.

“What?” the man loosened his grip ever so slightly on Taya’s neck.  Taya snapped her hands up into the same form she’d used on Z’avi that day in the courtyard.  Then, in an instant, she and Z’avi simultaneously engulfed the man’s real body and transparent figure in flames.

The man shrieked and grabbed at his face – not quite feeling the pain yet but knowing it was something he’d feel when he returned to that body.  With his concentration broken, his manifestation faded to nothingness.  He stumbled back, still crying out, and tripped over the unconscious body of one of his men.  His head hit the metal roof with a sickening clang.  He didn’t move.

“Taya!” Z’avi started to run to her.

“No,” she snapped, rubbing at her throat.  His smile disappeared.  “Take my body and get out of here.”  She raised her arm high and shot a pillar of flame into the sky above.  It was the signal.

“Taya, you can’t-.  We don’t even have the hatch anymore!”

“Figure it out!  I’ll return to my body as soon as I can get this ship out of the air.  I’ll be fine.”

“Fine?” he scoffed.  “If you die like this, why are we even here?  Why did we all just-”

“Get _out_ of here, Z’avi!” she ordered with the gruff voice of the man she still possessed.  She pivoted and crushed the glass on the roof hatch with a heavy boot.  “You _have_ to be on that ship.  Otherwise, I won’t be able to return to my body.”  Z’avi’s eyes went wide.  “ _Go_!”  She dropped inside.

 

The ship really was much larger on the inside than their own.  She’d fallen through the roof’s hatch and onto a metal catwalk.  Below her, she could see empty quarters – beds for at least fifty men.  The ship seemed deserted, though.  She couldn’t hear voices or footsteps. Taya skirted the walls desperately looking for the main deck.

“I’m telling you they’re taking too long!” she heard a hoarse voice shout.  She stopped.

“Then go check already.  You’re getting on my nerves.”  It was a much younger voice.  She heard the first man groan, then, footsteps quickly heading in her direction.  Taya darted behind a stack of boxes hugged against the hallway.

“Can’t even take care of a little girl,” she heard the man mumble as he stomped past.  He was an outrageously tall, burly man.  She desperately hoped that Z’avi had already found a way to escape.

When the man finally disappeared from sight, Taya stood and carefully stepped up to the door through which he had appeared.  There was a bright light spilling into the hallway.  As she approached the navigation panels, she heard two voices conversing in low tones.

“Where’s he going?” she asked, trying not to embellish her new voice at all.  One man turned to look as she entered.  He was built similarly to the other man, but he was much younger.  He might even be Taya’s age.  Next to him was someone barely ten years older than he.  They stood next to an expansive panel of controls that closely resembled the ones on her ship.

“Why didn’t you ask him when you past him in the hallway, huh?  He was going up to you all.  How’d it go?” the younger one smirked.  “She dead?”  Taya shook her head with a feigned scowl.

“Got away,” she sighed deeply.  Taya walked up closer to the men who didn’t seem pleased by the news.

“That’s impossible,” the older one was exasperated.  “All of you . . . I mean, boss has her marked, doesn’t he?  She shouldn’t hardly be able to move.”  Taya let them ramble while she took in the sight of the controls.  How could she take them out?

“Maybe that kid’s hiding some other skill,” the younger one mused.

“Kid?  What are you, two years older?  Three?”

Taya spied a large blue button covered by a glass case just to the left of the older pilot’s hand.  She recalled her time spent in her younger days with her father – when they still did those things. 

 _Don’t play with that, Taya_ , he’d warned _.  That’s the emergency escape air lock_. 

Taya grinned.

“Hey, is that the girl getting on her ship?” Taya asked, furiously pointing in the wrong direction.

“No way-” the younger laid across the consul, peering into the darkness.

“I don’t see their lights,” the older one wondered, also gazing into the distance.  Taya pretended to lean in.  With all the strength she could muster, she slammed the air lock button through the glass.  It shattered into her hand, immediately splattering blood.

“What-“ both men jumped back, startled.  Taya grabbed them both by the back of the neck and slammed their faces into the panels just as the floor hatch cracked open and wind ripped through the cabin.  One man reached for her arm, but she caught his hand with her elbow and jammed it into the panel as well.  Taya brought their heads together fiercely, and they both collapsed to the ground. 

Against the pounding force of the wind, she grabbed the main control stick and yanked with all of her strength.  Slowly, the metal peeled away and gave into her hands.  Taya chucked the control stick through the now fully open panel along the floor.  It disappeared into the night.

“Thanks for being so strong, Red Lotus guy,” she laughed one last time with her booming voice.  Taya took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be doing just a chapter at a time now, because I'm running lower on pre written content...... oop. Time to work, I guess.


	11. Lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team avatar begins searching a mysterious island for food and water, but they're not going to like what they find.

Z’avi watched the burly man Taya had possessed disappear into the depths of the ship.  His brain was working a kilometer a minute, trying to figure out how to return to their vessel with dead weight and no platform to drag it on.  He looked down at Taya’s lifeless body.  Her eyes slightly open and glazed, her pale skin somehow paler – she truly looked dead.

“Any chance you might wake up?” he called to her.  No answer.  Z’avi sighed deeply and scraped her up into his arms.  Then, the ship jarred slightly underneath him.  _Em, I hope you have backup plan._

“What the hell is going on!” a deep voice broke through the wind.  Z’avi zipped his head back and saw a huge, muscly man emerging from within the ship.  He gripped Taya hard and mounted the railing – not quite sure where he was going to jump but knowing that he needed to.

As if Em had heard his desperation, there was a glint of a sheet of metal racing through the sky towards the ship.  _That’s gotta be our ride_ he thought, but couldn’t help but notice that the trajectory was all wrong.  He was slightly terrified of Em’s faith in his ability.  But what choice did he have?   A few beats, one terrifyingly close yell from the big man, and one deep breath later; he sprang off the railing.

His heart was beating out of his chest.  Z’avi, with Taya’s body in his arms, was plummeting – still off trajectory to land on the sheet of metal.  Her dead weight made him miscalculate.  A million curses left his mouth as he freed one hand and sent a blast of fire behind him.  It propelled them slightly more, but Z’avi was beginning to think of best practices for landing on solid rock from 2,000km in the air.

Like a blessing from the heavens, Em must have sent an additional, stronger blast to the metal and Z’avi practically crashed onto it – his knees jarring.  With a grunt, he flattened himself and Taya’s body against the cold steel and gripped the edges of it over her.  Whiplash threw his head to one side as the metal’s trajectory snapped like a rubber band and threw them back towards their vessel.

The steel sheet clanged as it skirted the protective plating of the Republic City vessel, and the force of impact sent a wave of pain through his bones.  Z’avi was panting.

“Em!” he screamed – partly with relief and party with frustration.  Heavy footsteps told him she was finally rushing over.

“Good to know your lungs survived that,” she yelled to him over the wind.  “And Taya?”  They both looked down at her lifeless body, a cold chill of fear creeping up Z’avi’s spine. 

 _Taking her sweet time_ he thought.

 

“Taya!”  Li Yin’s desperate voice called just as Taya reentered consciousness.  “Taya, please.”  She peeled her eyes.

“She’s awake!” It was Em.  She grabbed Taya’s arm and helped her to sit up. “Taya, please drink.”  Taya’s eyes focused on a glass of water but her dizzy vision made it hard to tell if it was one glass or two.  She reached out her hand, just missing the glass; and Em made a noise of panic.  “Lay her back down!” she ordered. 

“I’m _fine_.”  Taya knocked Em’s hand away.  Light-headedness tingled through her brain and she closed her eyes to brace it.

“Like hell . . . You’ve been out for hours,” Li Yin mumbled from above her.  _Hours?_   she thought.  Her eyes wandered trying to process it all.  She must have been in the sleeping quarters just behind the main deck.  It was dark and cold, but far noisier than usual with these benders surrounding her.  Suddenly, a rush of memories reminded Taya of a million questions she needed to ask, though she didn’t think anyone could answer them.

“What happened?  I sent the ship down, but . . . wow, what a headache.” Taya winced.  Li Yin forced a glass into Taya’s hand. 

“Before we do anything, take one of Dr. Takka’s medicines.  Now.”  Taya’s eyes flickered up at Li Yin’s tone, but it was forceful and threatening all the same.  She gulped it down in one go.  “I don’t think you should be out of bed for the rest of this journey.”

“What journey?” Z’avi questioned from just outside the door.

“We’re going to Jinora,” Taya spoke.  She handed the glass back to Li Yin before throwing her feet over the side of the bed.  “With me at least walking around the cabin.  Really, Li Yin.”

“Jinora?” Z’avi’s voice rose with each syllable.  He appeared at the doorway with an angry expression.  “You can’t be serious.  Do you even know where she is?”  He scoffed.

“Well . . . actually, I was going to help them get there.”  Em bit her lip with noticeable shame.

“You _what_?  You were _in_ on this?”  Z’avi glared intensely.  “What happened to ‘good girl’ Em?  _‘Master Emerald?_ ’”

“Leave her alone, I would have left without her regardless.”

“And go where?  You don’t know where Jinora is!”

“Well.  Then tell me,” Taya almost laughed.  “You’re already here and we’re on the run.”  Z’avi looked exasperated.

“. . . I guess we’re going to the damn Southern Water Nation.” Z’avi looked furious, but Li Yin looked intrigued.  “That’s a full day journey on a regular air ship – I don’t even know about this small one – and when you get there, where are you going to go?  We don’t have clearance to land anywhere!”

“Well, I landed the ship in this forest, and I can land it behind a mountain or something.  But we can’t leave right now.” Li Yin gestured to the wall where telltale raindrops clanged rhythmically on the metal siding.  “Can’t risk the storm getting worse.  We’re staying here for the night.  Hopefully we can find some food-”

“Where even are we?” Taya wondered aloud.  Everyone exchanged glances and made Taya even more nervous.

“We’re, uh, not . . . sure.”  Li Yin sighed.  Taya narrowed her eyes.  In this century, with all the modern technology now available, how could they possibly not know?

“Have you tried checking your damn phones?  The ship’s navigation?” Taya rubbed at her temple as the stress set in.

“We’re not sure why, but the navigation’s malfunctioning.  The location keeps jumping on the map.”  Li Yin had pulled out Taya’s phone from her pocket to hand it to her.

“And none of us have service,” Em said with a frown.  Taya noted the “no service” message at the top of the screen and shoved the phone in her pant pocket with hasty frustration.

“Okay, well, this is what physical maps are for.  Have you searched the ship?”

“Every potential place.  Taya, _really_?  You think we haven’t already checked?” Z’avi sounded just as annoyed as she did.

“Well what are we going to do about it?  We’re on a random island in the Earth Kingdom with the Red Lotus on our tail, and we have no idea where we are; so why aren’t we outside trying to find out?”

“This is why I told Li Yin to let you sleep,” Z’avi grumbled under his breath unsuccessfully – everyone heard him.

“Lady Taya, we just arrived.”  Li Yin seemed a bit nervous.

“So let’s go out, then.” Taya’s eyes flickered to everyone.

 “Ah, so the entitled princess is showing her true colors again.  It was only a matter of time.” Z’avi rolled his eyes.  “It’s bad enough you brought a cat and an actual servant with you to the temple.”  Z’avi gestured to Li Yin, who looked almost shocked.  “Li Yin, tell her she _‘may need some more rest, my lady.’_ ” He mocked Li Yin’s tone and hit a nerve.

“’A servant?’”  Taya echoed.  She was shocked as well.  “Li Yin and Snow are like family.  Li Yin is my best friend.”

“Your best friend calls you ‘Lady’ and helps you do virtually any mundane task.  I think Li Yin just won’t tell you-”

“I am not a servant.”  Li Yin declared.  She stepped directly in front of Z’avi.  “I am a decorated captain of the United Nations forces, assigned to the special protection squad for the Chen family.”

“Impressive.  Unfortunate that they waste your talents cleaning up after this one.” Z’avi gestured to Taya and maintained a smirk.

“Maybe you just don’t recognize friendship because you don’t have any friends,” Taya retorted bitterly.

“What was that?” he snapped, stepping around Li Yin to square up with Taya.

“Okay!  I think that’s enough,” Em announced as she bent a wall of air between them.  “Whatever our next step is, we’re going to have to be together for a few days at least, yeah?  Please, let’s focus on truly important matters.  Like food.  I am starving.”

 

Li Yin finally used her age to persuade the group to follow her plan – split up to find food and water in the early morning darkness.  Now, Taya was with Em on the hunt for food. The forest was thick with green brush and tall trees that dripped the raining water from above on top of them at a slightly slower rate, but the misty rain was gradually soaking her clothes and hooded coat anyway.  Em’s robes had a hood attached as well, but she wasn’t fairing much better.

 “If we don’t find something in ten minutes, I’m going back,” Em groaned.  “Any longer, I think we’ll freeze to death.”  Em was right.  The breeze from the ocean was strong even inside the forest.  It was chilling Taya to the bone, and it only worsened with each additional drop of rain on her clothes.  At that moment, distant animals echoed and made Taya a little nervous.  She had never been a big fan of the dark.

“We have to be faring better than Li Yin and Z’avi at least.  They don’t have much tree cover following that river.” Taya remembered the wide stream they noticed near where their air ship was parked.  Fresh water would hopefully await them further up the path, but only Li Yin and Z’avi would know.  It made sense that Li Yin went along to bend the water into the jugs they found in the ship’s kitchen cabinets.  Taya couldn’t understand, though, why Li Yin had not gone with her instead – especially after they almost scrapped with Z’avi inside the ship.

“Is he always such an ass?” Taya suddenly asked.  Em blinked at her with surprise.  “Yes, I mean Z’avi.”

“Well, the short answer is yes.  He is.  Being a very good bender with millions of fangirls kind of does that to a man, I guess.”  Em began to laugh. 

“What?”

“Oh, I just grew up with him.  I know too many incriminating things.  It’d make the fangirls cry.”

“Oh.  So you wouldn’t say you’re . . . attracted to him?” Taya immediately bit her lip.  _Why did I ask that?  What the hell?_

“Um,” Em looked far more flustered than even Taya.  “Not at all, actually.” 

“Like a brother, right?” Taya tried to sound encouraging.  She couldn’t imagine why the question had changed her mood so suddenly.  Em nodded with a nervous laugh.

“What about you?” she asked quickly.  Taya’s heart stopped.

“Hm?”

“Are _you_ attracted to Z’avi?”

“Oh.” Taya felt a cold sweat despite the chilly air and the rain splattering her face.  “O-of course not.”

“Like a brother?” she smirked and wiggled her eyebrows.  It was a knowing look that Taya didn’t like at all.

“I-I mean not that I would know.” Taya spat quickly.  It was true.  Taya was just by herself as a child. 

“Ah, sorry.  I have one!” Em smiled.  Taya paused, her legs stopping in the mud like they were stuck.

“A brother?”

“Yep!  A sister, too.  Casper and Sapphire.”  Em groaned.  “The jewel and gem theme really exhausts me.”

“I think I may have seen Sapphire!  Looks just like a mini Master Pearl, yes?”

“Absolutely.  A carbon copy.  It’s a little disturbing.  I think Cas is the only one who looks like our dad, to be honest.  He’s just a little guy, though, so we’ll see.”

“How old is he?” Taya was suddenly so intrigued that Master Pearl was not only a mother but a mother of three!  Taya thought that maybe she could be a little more nurturing with three kids.

“Cas is only six-years-old right now.  Sapph is fourteen.”

“’Fourteen?’” Taya repeated slowly.  “So will she be a master soon?”

“Ah.  No.” Em’s lips pressed into a thin line.  “She’s, uh, not a bender.”

Her words hung in the air for a moment.  Taya’s lips formed an “O,” but she couldn’t find anything to say.  It can’t be easy to be the daughter of Master Pearl and unable to bend.

The silence was just as well.  Finding food was much easier when you didn’t scare it away with loud discussions of family members.  There wasn’t much food to see though, Taya realized.  No fruit hanging from a tree, berries sitting in a bush, or creatures crawling anywhere.  There were still distant noises that implied animals were _somewhere_ , but Taya wasn’t sure where to start.

“I’m gonna go up for a look.  Be right back!” Em called.  Before Taya realized what that meant, she blasted straight up into the air.  Em almost looked as though she was flying, but as soon as she ascended, gravity began to pull her back down.  “It’s certainly thick.  I think we should set a trap or something . . .” Em grimaced.  “I haven’t eaten meat in five years.”  Taya felt a twinge of regret.  It was unsafe to assume a strange plant was edible, but an animal would be much easier to identify and to eat.  For Em, that would mean breaking her vegetarian diet and probably roughing up her stomach.

“Uh, how about some sea kelp?  Fish?” Taya suggested, though the idea wasn’t appealing to her at all.  Em flashed a bright smile that lit up the dark. 

“Oh, that’d be much better, really!”

They began their walk back with Taya day dreaming of freshly prepared sushi from her favorite restaurant.

 

The island was small, and back tracking to the ship only took about thirty minutes.  Their ship, though hidden from above, was easy to spot beneath the trees and led them to the edge of the forest.  Stepping into the ship to check in and to grab something to fish with, Taya saw that Li Yin and Z’avi did not appear to be back just yet.  Mr. Snowball mewed from the darkness and ran up to the open door.  Taya petted him with murmurs of encouragement before shooing him back to his makeshift bed in the ship’s quarters.

“Let’s head to shore,” Taya called to Em as she shut the door.  She held out a net probably used to cover boxes for shipping, but that she now intended to use to capture fish and kelp.

“Should do the trick.  Let’s go!” 

The dawning sun was barely visible through the cloud of misty rain, but it lit the path to the sea all the same.  As they stepped to the edge of the cliff to find footing to head down, Taya noticed large, engraved stones perched along the edge.  They were, unmistakably, grave markers.  Taya shuttered thinking that several people had died here, but she couldn’t make out the text on the stones in the dimness of morning.

At the shore, Taya realized that she had never tried to fish in her life.  She hopelessly threw the net into the sea, but refused to step into the icy water.  In the end, Em had to cast the net with air bending and drag it back in when the fish were “biting.”  Taya didn’t know why the fish would bite the nylon rope, but Em clearly looked like she knew far more about what she was doing.  When they finally had a decent amount of fish and seaweed, the sun had risen a bit.  It also had finally stopped raining.

“Let’s go inside and cook these, please.  I think I might not ever be warm again,” Em complained.  Taya hastily agreed.  Climbing the cliff, though, wasn’t as easy as that.  It was jaggedly cut with poor hand holds and eroding rock that made each step slippery and dangerous.  By the time they reached the top, both of them were panting.  Taya plopped onto the sparse grass in front of the grave stones from earlier to catch her breath.

“Isn’t sitting there technically disturbing the dead?” Em questioned sarcastically.  Taya jokingly glared back but took a sudden interest in the graves she couldn’t read earlier.  The dates on them were all over the place, and the names seemed to all come from the Earth Nation. 

“’Keziah “Kaza” Chen,’” Em read.  Taya’s heart stopped.  She followed Em’s gaze to the stone on the farthest right.  The date on the stone was the most recent, and the name on the stone was the most familiar.  “Chen . . . Like you, right?”  Taya’s eyes bulged.  She scrambled up for a closer look.  The stone read the name and listed the death date as just over a year after Taya was born.

“I-”

“Oh, wow.  Do you know this person?” Em reached for Taya’s shoulder.  Taya couldn’t answer.  Her voice was stuck in her throat.

She knew this person quite well, though she had few memories of them at all.

Kaza Chen was her mother. 


	12. The Isle of Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mysterious disappearance of Keziah Chen from almost 17 years ago is like an eerie ghost tale to team avatar currently camped on the Isle of Death. Things lurk in the forest waiting for them to fall asleep, maybe even scarier than the idea of ghosts.

The shock from earlier unsettled Taya to the point that she had forgotten all of her already postponed questions about her bending and the Red Lotus.  Li Yin was concerned after Em’s whispered explanation, but still the others let her be while she sat on her bed in the ship’s quarters and stared into the metal plating of the wall.

“It was a horrible accident, you know.”  Li Yin’s voice from the kitchen was faint, but the words were powerful.  They hit Taya like a punch to the gut.  Li Yin was going to tell them about her mom.

“That person in the grave?  ‘Kaza’ something?” this was Em’s voice. 

“Yes.  It was Taya’s mother.”  There was a too long period of silence while Z’avi and Em processed this.  “Lady Keziah, without telling anyone why or that she was leaving at all, took a military vessel and left in the middle of a stormy night.  She was missing for a week.  When they were searching for her body. . .” Li Yin paused and Taya felt like she might throw up.  “They found remnants of the vessel on this beach and in the water.  The serial numbers matched the air ship she had taken.”

“Did anyone ever think that she managed to survive?” Z’avi’s tone was much gentler than Taya had ever heard it.

“No.  Even though she seemed to be escaping somewhere in the middle of the night, it just wasn’t like her to disappear like that.  General Chen would never tell the press why, but one day, he just halted the search.  Some say it hurt him too much to confirm that she was dead, but what I assume is that he found some kind of evidence.  It’s easy now to say General Chen was a broken man, but back then?  He was the toughest man anyone knew.  I can’t see him breaking the way he did unless he knew more than the rest of us.”  Li Yin’s speculations caught Taya’s interest.  Taya had thought this privately but had never heard anyone else speak it aloud.  The media was always jumping to call her father many things – including weak.  Taya knew better.

“Forgive me, but you weren’t working with the Chens until after this happened?” Z’avi’s skeptical voice interrupted Taya’s thought.  “How do you know their temperaments so well?  How can you be so sure?”

“I have sources that were.  These are thoughts shared by most of the staff that was there at the time.  The general might not have many friends now, but those who used to be closer with him seem to assume the same.”

“Even still . . . You are sure that she is gone?”

“Yes.  Lady Keziah was also a strong fighter and bender.  It is strange, though, that no one can confirm for me that she was an earth bender.  With her name, I always wondered if she might have been from the Fire Nation.”  There were gasps from Em and Z’avi.  “Regardless.  Lady Keziah was strong and capable.  To disappear with Taya only a year old – with her husband President of the Earth Nation – it just doesn’t make sense to me.”  And to Taya as well. 

“Well, what if her and the general fought?  If she was unhappy?” Em seemed to echo Taya’s worries, but Taya knew.

“I think anyone could tell you that they were incredibly happy people.  Happy together.  Winning a presidential election and having children are probably things that would make most people incredibly happy.  Certainly something could have happened, but I don’t think so.  Whatever made Lady Keziah leave that night, it was very sudden.”

Taya looked down at her bracelet.  The emerald was so expertly carved and beautiful.  Her family’s wealth came from her father’s inherited jewelry business, though he rarely did more than sign paperwork for it.  She had known that her mother designed a matching set of these bracelets for the family, all with her own talents in drawing.  Taya had to admit that she could not remember more of her mother than maybe her smile and emotions she had felt while with her.  She had simply been too young to remember more.  It was hard even to find photos of her mother to help remember her face as her father had removed the majority of them from their home and also – with some degree of bribery, Taya was sure – from the internet. 

Taya was lost in her thoughts while the telltale sounds of metal pans clinked from the kitchen.  Someone was finally cooking the fish.  When food was finally ready, Li Yin came in to gingerly place a bowl of fish soup in Taya’s hand and a cup of water on the night table beside her.

“How are you feeling?”  Taya knew this question went beyond her illness or the cold that had soaked through her heavy clothes.

“I’m fine-” but Taya caught herself after Li Yin’s suspicious glare.  “I’ll be fine.”  Li Yin gave a sympathetic smile at that.  “I know where we are.”

“I guess I do now, too.  The Isle of Death, wasn’t it?”

“The where of who?” Em practically yelled from just outside.  Li Yin sighed deeply.

“This place.  It’s the Isle of Death.  Heard of it?”

“I have,” Z’avi spoke.  His tone was still very gentle.  He appeared at the doorway with a soft expression, too.  _Damn it, Li Yin_ Taya sighed inwardly.  “It’s a place with frequent storms, and it mysteriously causes navigation systems to go haywire.  It’s killed a lot of people.”  He and Em shared a look as they realized that this was where Taya’s mother disappeared.

“Correct,” Li Yin spoke.  “It is also home to massive creatures – which you and I discovered earlier.”  Taya looked at Li Yin and Z’avi and noticed the new dirt and cuts all over them in addition to being roughed up by the Red Lotus.

“Come again?” Em asked immediately.  Her head peaked behind Z’avi’s from the doorway.”

“Yeah we found some nice, abnormally large elbow leeches.  On ourselves.”  Z’avi peered at a rather big circular cut that seemed to wrap around his arm, and Taya could clearly see where the elbow leech had fastened itself to his body.

“Bugs.” This time Taya spoke.  “Birds.  Snakes.  All gigantic.  We’re lucky we didn’t run into anything, Em.” Her voice croaked a bit.  Everyone looked at her with gentleness she hated.  She spoke quickly, “So I’m sure we want to sleep, but one of you has to take guard each shift so we aren’t eaten alive.” 

An aggravated smirk appeared on Z’avi’s face, but he opened his mouth first – seemingly to volunteer.

“I’m taking first watch,” she snapped again before he could even let out a word.  Everyone was startled into silence.  After quietly scraping and washing their bowls, they settled into the quarters, and Taya settled into her thoughts.

 

 

Taya stared at the lack of signal on her cell phone, desperately wanting to call her father.  It was rare that she wanted to speak to him at all, but she had a multitude of questions.  Why did her mother have a grave marker here?  Why had they never visited it?  What did he find to call of the search?  Did he actually know what her bending was? 

Her brain was numb with a million questions and mounting confusion.  As if on auto-pilot, Taya pushed the button to open the side hatch.  Late morning warmth enveloped her as she stepped out into the sun.  Snow was right on her tail, of course, pleasantly interested in what laid outside the ship.

“Don’t go too far,” she murmured to him.  The cat looked at her almost in acknowledgement and went no further than the tree line of the forest.

Taya looked over at the sounds of the ocean waves crashing.  It called to her, and she began to walk towards the same cliff and grave stones from earlier.  Her eyes fixated more and more on her mother’s grave marker with every step.  “Hey,” she breathed as she approached.  Taya felt odd little butterflies in her stomach.  What was she to say?  She folded her legs under her and sat in front of the stone.  The letters of her mother’s name burned into her brain as she stared.

“I have so many questions, mom.”  Taya pursed her lips.  Talking to the stone felt a little unnatural and strange.  She continued anyway.  “The biggest one would be ‘how did you die,’ but I don’t think you’d enjoy telling me about that.”  Taya swallowed and her eyes bore into the ground, as if to check to see if there was even a body beneath the grave marker.  “Or about Tao.  Or about why you even left home . . .

“It’s been lonely, though.  Dad was never the same after you were gone.  Oh yeah,” she laughed lightly.  “I might be the avatar.  Imagine that.”  Taya mouth gave a tiny smile, but it hurt.  She wanted desperately to tell her mom that she was the avatar – for her to be proud.  “I’m probably not, though.  Some Red Lotus guy said something about energy.  I don’t know what that means.”  Taya started to pick at the already sparse grass at her feet.  A soft thing suddenly grazed her arm.  Thinking it to be Mr. Snowball, Taya reached to stroke it.  When she looked down, she was startled to see that it was not Snow at all, but a strangely tall sugar glider that was a bit too far from the forest and a little too panicked.  Taya removed her hand and darted her eyes to the forest tree line where she’d last seen Snow.  He seemed to have gone elsewhere.

“Where is that little, white fluff ball,” she muttered.  Taya moved to stand up; but before she did, a loud growl alerted her to something just on the opposite side of the ship.  Taya stiffened.  An even louder sound pierced the morning silence.  Whatever it was had just hit the metal siding with a thump.   Hard.

“Gotta go, mom,” she whispered while scrambling to the side hatch.  She saw Mr. Snowball resting on a patch of sunlight just outside the door, and she sighed with relief as she quickly shooed him inside and hit the button to shut the hatch.  Taya desperately grabbed at the metal and dragged the door along a little faster than the mechanism allowed.  Another snarl ripped through the air just before it shut – this one much closer.  A loud thump just on the other side of where she stood made her jump back.  She could feel the ship give just a bit under the pressure.

Taya sprang for the ladder to the roof hatch.  The metal slab, now lying on the ground somewhere in the Earth Nation, had been replaced by a tarp they found in the storage area of the ship.  Taya dragged it away and sprang up the steps to the bright morning sun.  It blinded her just as she heard another clang.  She rushed to the side of the ship, following the sound, and caught just the top of something large and hairy with her eyes.  Taya swallowed hard.

“What’s up?” Z’avi shouted from the hatch opening, apparently awoken by the noise.  Taya silently pointed down over the side of the ship, a horrified look on her face. 

There were three wild shirshu.  They were not necessarily abnormal shirshu.  They were generally this huge and frightening; and they were currently slamming themselves into the side of the ship repeatedly trying to knock it over or bust it open.

“Yikes!” Em exclaimed just as she reached the side of the ship.  “But they don’t have eyes!  You think they can still sense us?”

“I think they smell our food.” Taya noted.  Shirshu had a very keen sense of smell and – even worse – a tongue that could paralyze its prey.  Shirshu were typically poached or stolen for their powerful venom and their tracking abilities.  _Of course some live on the Isle of Death_ Taya thought bitterly.

“Let me just fry them, so we can get back to sleep-”

“Z’avi, you will _not_!” Em shrieked.  Z’avi rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.

“I know you refuse to harm animals, Em; but could you at least, I don’t know, blow them elsewhere for us?  I think at this rate, they’re going to break the ship and have at least two of us for lunch.”

“That will only keep them away for a short time.  I think we need to get out of here.”  Taya glanced at Li Yin, who had just appeared from the hatch with a rough expression on her face that made it clear she needed more sleep.

“If we only had an earth bender, we could build a wall and keep things like that away,” he glanced over at Taya, implying she should be an earth bender – just as he did with every element. 

“Alas,” Taya responded flatly.  “We are earth bender-less.”

“Oh, cut it out, you two.  I’ll take care of them, I guess,” Em groaned.  She extended her arm and furrowed her brow – trying to think of the best way to fend them off.  As she thought, another hard thump hit the side of the ship.  This time, all of them could feel the strong vibration.

“Any time, Em!” Z’avi called.  He too raised his arms.  Taya knew he only needed Em’s words of encouragement to barbeque them all.  Sure, they were vicious by nature, but the shirshu were only hunting for food.  They were probably just hungry, and would leave them alone with full stomachs.

“Li Yin!” Taya called back to her.  “Grab the rest of the fish!”  Li Yin nodded in understanding and disappeared back inside.

“You want me to feed them?  That’s not going to be enough, Taya-”

“No, Em.  I want you to blast it far, but lure them with it.  They get a nice meal far from us, and maybe they’ll leave us alone for a while.”  Em nodded slowly, turning back in anticipation of Li Yin’s armful of fish.

“When they leave,” Taya turned to Z’avi.  “That’s when you should use your fire.  It’ll keep them away for a bit. We’re far enough from the edge of the tree line than a wall of flame can burn a little and Li Yin can put it out before we leave, but it’ll mask the scent of us for a while.  Hopefully.”  Z’avi didn’t look keen to follow the order, but he didn’t protest her idea either.  Li Yin then appeared with a large pan of the remaining fish soup.  Em grabbed one side to peer in as the shirshu seemed to become more aggressive in their attempts to bust open the ship.

“This looks more like you need a water bender . . . a fish bender?” Em squinted at the soup and Li Yin closed her eyes in apparent frustration.

“You can bend the air around the soup, Em.  Just send it flying somewhere in the forest.”  Em made a face, but listened to Taya anyway.  She interpreted the instructions very literally, creating a bowl of air for the soup and then blasting it so far into the forest that Taya was scared for a moment that the shirshu would not be interested at all.  For good measure, Li Yin waved a hand over the remnants of the soup’s broth and aimed the drops at the nose of the most interested shirshu.  It growled fiercely at the gesture, but soon all three shirshu were making tentative, sniffing steps towards where Em had sent the soup into the forest.

“My turn,” Z’avi mused; and with a wave of his hand, a sizable wall of flame appeared between the ship and the tree line. 

“Keep it small, you pyromaniac!” Taya spat.  “You’ll catch the ship and the forest on fire if you aren’t careful.

“Just trust the fire bender, okay?” he sneered.  Taya rolled her eyes and crossed the roof to the other side to gaze at the water.  She stewed for a moment just watching the waves.

“This must be the West Lake then, and not the Mo Ce Sea,” Li Yin spoke behind her, “if this is the Isle of Death.”  Taya nodded at Li Yin as she walked up beside her.  The West Lake put them in the exact center of the Earth Kingdom.  It also put them dangerously close to home in Ba Sing Se.

“Follow me.  I have an idea for our next camp.”  Li Yin walked away with finality.  Taya followed.  Li Yin stepped out of the sleeping quarters with a piece of paper just as Taya reached the base of the ladder to the roof.  Li Yin slapped the paper onto the nearest wall and began to draw.  Her pencil traced a rough map of the world and marked in a dark circle where Taya assumed to be the Isle of Death.

“We are here,” Li Yin breathed, pointing to the circle and watching Taya’s nod.  “There is not much settlement along the coast here,” Li Yin pointed again, “across from the Eastern Air Temple.  It’s too rocky and mountainous for proper settlements.  If we catch a few more fish – we already gathered enough drinking water – we can journey there when night falls.”  Taya stared at the second dot on the paper, somewhere at the edge of the Earth Nation in the southeast corner of Li Yin’s map.

“That’s all fine, but what about fuel?  Maybe we have enough to make it there, but surely not enough to take us all the way south?”  Taya bit her lip.  It was a growing fear of hers that their ship would simply drop into the ocean.

“That’s just it,” Li Yin smirked knowingly.  “There isn’t much settlement there, but there is a military fueling station.”  Taya’s eyes widened at Li Yin.

“You want to rob the military’s fuel supply?” Em took the words from Taya’s mouth.  Em was perched on the ladder to the roof with an incredulous expression.  “I mean, I could be wrong; but won’t they, uh, not want us to do that?”

“Okay, look!” Li Yin removed the paper from the wall and faced them both.  She seemed to have thought it through.  “My permission to follow Taya to the New Northern Air Temple is not known information.  My orders to guard the Chen family, actually, aren’t known.  I haven’t been in contact with any old friends because the position is held in secrecy as part of the family’s protection.”  Taya nodded slowly.  She could see where this was going, but she didn’t like it.  “So, I can waltz in and take fuel to my liking and tell them I’m on orders.  By the time the report reaches anyone who suspects I am with you now, we will be gone for several days.”

“Li Yin, you can’t know that!  We’re giving away our position.” Taya nervously looked at the map in Li Yin’s hands.  If nothing else, the military or Red Lotus could guess where they were going and even head them off.

“I know it’s not foolproof, but we don’t have a lot of options.  Flying over land is already a huge risk, but so is flying much farther without fuel!  The gauges say we’re already less than half full.”  Taya’s suspicions were confirmed.  She sighed heavily.  “This route minimizes land travel and gives us a large fuel supply, Taya.” 

There were a few moments of silence before Taya realized she was right.  There was nowhere better to go at the moment.

“Then, I’ll go tell Z’avi.  He’s on watch until just before we leave.  You, too . . . should sleep,” Em grinned sympathetically.  Taya interpreted this as a “you two look terrible,” and wasn’t entirely pleased.

“Do you think you can?” Li Yin’s voice was soft and warm.  Taya winced at the nurturing tone, but nodded. 

“Are you sure you want to do this?  Isn’t it . . . treason?” Taya thought of Li Yin’s pride in being a captain.  Li Yin smiled grimly.

“I’m already disobeying orders.  Don’t worry about me, Taya.  Get some rest.  You must be exhausted.”

“Well, my shirshu adrenaline _is_ gone,” she confirmed.  With a polite grin that didn’t touch her eyes, Taya guiltily disappeared first into the sleeping quarters.  They were a mess from everyone waking in panic.  There were blankets thrown to the floor and a lone water cup spilled by the entrance.  She cautiously stepped over the puddle and noticed a snoring creature at the foot of her bed.

“Good night, Snow,” she whispered to the fluff ball as she slipped inside.  Her eyes shut, and she drifted into sleep quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for being patient! We've reached the end of what was previously written. Now it's all working from an outline, so it may take me longer to finish a chapter :( Feel free to hound me for more.


	13. The Vision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Isle of Death holds one more mystery for Taya before team avatar sets out to rob a military base. But . . . what did she see?

Taya slept horribly.  Her various dreams became a single blur, though, maybe she remembered Z’avi in them briefly . . . 

The next thing she could clearly recall was being in a forest of tall trees.  All around her were spirit world fireflies like those on her bracelet. They twinkled in the darkness of night and brightened a path for Taya.   She wandered for what felt like an hour.  The only living thing to show itself had been a regular-sized lemur.  Taya originally thought the forest was the one just outside on the Isle of Death, but there were no giant creatures or telltale roars in the night to tell her so.  There was, however, a voice – steadily growing louder with an eerie echo.

 _This way_ , the voice beckoned.  Taya finally recognized it as Avatar Korra’s.  She hurried faster, barely missing the hovering fireflies.  Despite her progress, the forest seemed to continue endlessly.  Taya’s heart beat quickly, and she could feel herself beginning to panic.  Finally, there was a roar in the distance that startled her into impatience.

“Where?” she asked Korra’s voice.  “Who?”

 _This way_ , Korra’s voice repeated.  Taya began to run.  A tree branch caught her cheek and cut.  She could have sworn she felt some pain.

Finally, she saw a clearing ahead.  She burst from the trees and looked everywhere.

“Korra, there’s nothing here!” she cried.  Why would she lead her to nothing?

 _This way_ , Korra said again – her tone final this time.  Taya threw up her hands in frustration.  She sat on the ground and laid back to look up at the dark sky.  She glanced at every visible star – quite a few in this forest away from the light pollution – and her eyes caught on movement.  There was something up there in the clouds coming down towards her.

“No . . .” Taya whispered.  “It couldn’t be.”  But it had to be.  There was a small, unmarked air ship landing outside the trees just a hundred meters away.  She sat up in disbelief as she watched Li Yin step out of the ship to survey the area.  Taya skittered back into the tree branches, snapping a twig as she disappeared into the leaves.  Li Yin stopped for a moment and stared.  Taya didn’t even see her move, but Li Yin had sent a blade of ice straight for her face.  Taya’s hand went out as though she could stop it.  Her eyes widened when she saw the blade of ice melt into water that splashed her face.  It felt cold.

“Must have been an animal,” she heard Li Yin tell herself.  She turned around to go back in the ship, and Taya followed stealthily.  Taya only managed to make it halfway to the door before it shut completely.  Desperately, she ran to the front windshield and jumped trying to see.  It was only a glance, but what she saw shocked her.  Laying in Em and Z’avi’s arms was her own lifeless body being carried into the sleeping quarters.

Taya sprang out of her bed, wide awake.  At her feet, Mr. Snowball growled slightly, still half asleep and clearly annoyed.  Taya’s eyes shot to her phone beside her.  She checked the time:  4:22pm.  Light poured in from the doorway that told her there was no way what was in her dream had recently happened. 

Taya nervously crawled out of her bed and began to creep through the beds towards the cockpit.  It was completely silent and seemed completely safe.

“Someone awake?” she heard Z’avi call from above her.  She raised her head and their eyes met – Z’avi’s head poking into the ship from the roof.

“Just me,” she whispered and used a finger to the lips to gesture that he be quieter.  He mocked her with the same movement.

“Something wrong?” he asked.  Taya opened her mouth but closed it.  The others were still sleeping.  With a sigh, she reached for the ladder and began to head up.

“It was a dream – no.  It was like a vision.”  She spoke as soon as she reached the roof.  Z’avi gave her a skeptical look from the side railing where he was watching the wall of flames he had created, but he let her continue.  “I was walking outside in the dark.  Korra’s voice led me through the forest.”  Z’avi skeptical look melted into something more pondering. 

“Okay . . .” was all he said.

“She led me to where our ship was going to land.  Then, I watched it land!  Li Yin stepped out of it.” Z’avi only nodded slowly with encouragement.  “She heard me move and shot ice at me, but I– I bent it!  It melted and fell.”  The doubt had returned to Z’avi’s face.  “I swear I did!  And when I tried to get into the ship, the door closed on me, but–!” she grabbed his arm when he began to almost laugh and not pay attention.  “But when I looked through the windshield, I saw _my_ body.  You and Em were carrying it into the sleeping quarters.”

“Okay, well, that’s weird,” Z’avi agreed, “but that just sounds like a freaky dream.”  Taya rolled her eyes.

“You _did_ carry me into bed with Em, didn’t you?”

“There’re only four of us, Taya; and you know Li Yin was piloting.  You can’t call that evidence.”

“Well, then, I guess I’ll ask Li Yin if she shot ice at something this morning!”

“Go ahead!” he laughed genuinely.  “Every other hour, it’s a melodrama with you, I swear.”

“Shut up, Z’avi.”  Taya was curt.  Z’avi’s laughter stopped. 

“Look, princess.  Em isn’t awake right now to stop me from giving you a piece of my mind, and I’m a little too tired to stop myself either.  So cut the nonsense and go back to bed.”

“I said _shut up_ , Z’avi,” she growled.

“Funny how you still think you can give orders.”

“Funny how you can’t stop and realize that you’re being an asshole.”

“Ha!” he laughed sarcastically.  “Funny how you took the words right out of my mouth.”  Taya fumed and bit her lip trying to stop herself from exploding.  She tasted blood.  “You are a spoiled, naive, self-absorbed little princess who puts on a dramatic show for attention!”

“ _Shut up,_ you’re just talking about yourself-”

“And you know what?” Z’avi yelled over her, cutting off her response.  “It doesn’t even matter that you lost your mom.  I lost mine, Taya!  Big deal!”  Taya felt a sick hatred for Z’avi in this moment she’d never felt for anyone else.  It burned her.  “You aren’t special.  You aren’t even the avatar.”  Finally, the burning hatred became wet tears that bubbled out the corner of her eyes faster than she could stop them.  “Stop trying to be.”

Whether he meant about being special, the avatar, or both; Taya wasn’t sure.  She shoved him away forcefully and jumped down the hatch, completely avoiding the ladder.  She landed with a clang and immediately slammed the side door hatch release.  Taya couldn’t be on this ship a moment longer.

 

It was at least an hour before she even considered venturing back from the sea cliff.  Her anger fueled productive thinking as she pondered the many questions about her bending and the Red Lotus and her mother and her dream and . . .  She felt so lost.  There were only mounting questions and almost no answers.  _Somehow_ , she thought, _Master Jinora will know_.  It was all that could calm her mind as panic continued to rise like the ocean.  She grabbed onto her mediation bracelet tightly every time she felt like she would break like the waves.

“Taya,” Li Yin called, startling her out of her thoughts.  “Let’s grab some fish.”  Taya turned and gave her a polite smile. 

Urgently, Taya told her about the dream as they fished – or more accurately, as Li Yin fished while Taya watched.  Before Li Yin could even answer about using her bending that morning, Taya complained about Z’avi’s arrogant response.

“He’s about as stubborn as you are,” Li Yin sighed.  Taya took immediate offense to the comparison.

“He’s an asshole, is what he is!”

“Taya,” she sighed more heavily.  “You know I adore you, but what he said is sort of right.”  Taya’s jaw dropped.  Where Z’avi’s words had been fire, Li Yin’s were like ice in her blood.  They hurt.

“Li Yin-”

“Wait!  I mean about you giving orders, not the rest of it.” Li Yin spoke quickly after seeing Taya’s pitiful face.  “You are so used to giving orders and demands, you don’t think about the fact that they are people who grew up in temples with acolytes and bending masters.  You were so privileged to have had that home in Ba Sing Se, Taya.”  Li Yin’s tone was cautious and gentle.  Taya stared at the bucket of fish in front of her.  “I never had your clothes or jewels or freedom.  I think everyone wishes to be you Taya, even though you think they only laugh at you.  It’s jealousy.”

Taya looked up at Li Yin curiously.  Sure, they had spoken a little casually before, but never had Li Yin tried to criticize her to this extent.  If anything, Taya’s anxiety made it too difficult to get out before she completely panicked.  But Li Yin continued on as though she was determined it all be said.

“But Z’avi is wrong, Taya.  Maybe he’s not jealous exactly, but he’s wrong. You are selfless.  You just want to save the world and matter to someone.  But you don’t believe enough in yourself.  You matter to me, Taya.  Even if you are not the avatar, you _are_ special.  Bending, titles, looks – none of it matters; but you have it all and then some.  Z’avi wants to see you submit and be fragile and give up like he thinks you ought to be doing, but you are strong!” Li Yin had stopped fishing and came to kneel next to Taya.  She laid her hand on Taya’s shoulder and gripped it, forcing Taya to look up at her.

“Strength, Taya,” she began, “is in your heart.  It’s not just your fist.  What you face every day with your father and the media – it’s not easy.  Be _proud_ of who you are, because I am.”  Li Yin gave her a shining smile that Taya couldn’t help but return.

“Thank you, Li Yin.”

“And,” Li Yin smiled wider somehow.  “I _did_ shoot ice at something this morning.”

“You did?” Taya’s eyes widened.

“Yes.  Though, I didn’t see what it was.” _What did that mean?_

“Wait, but I bent the water.  It had to be a water bender you saw!” Taya looked at her hands as though they could explain every question swimming in her mind.  “Or an avatar . . .”

“Taya . . .  Taya, that’s very unlikely.  I don’t think it was even a person.  The brush cover wasn’t really enough to conceal one of the island’s large animals let alone a person.”  Taya bit her lip.  Li Yin gave another sympathetic smile.  “I know it’s frustrating, but I think you’ll have to wait to hear an answer from Master Jinora.”  Taya frowned again.

“I don’t think I’m going to get _any_ answers until I see her.”

“That’s possible.  We’ll just take this one step at a time.  For now, we need to take these back to the ship,” she picked up the pail of fish and began to head for the jagged cliff, “and then we’ll set out.”

Taya begrudgingly followed.  She didn’t want to face Z’avi or even Em, who seemed to be in a serious mood only when the two of them bickered – and they surely would continue to bicker.  To avoid trouble, Taya went straight to the sleeping quarters to pet Snow while the others prepped the ship to fly.  Just as the sun set on the horizon, the ship lifted for another long journey.

“Here we go,” Taya heard Em hum without enthusiasm.  Taya braved a moment to go more closely to watch the land disappear beneath them.  As the river and the trees began to grow smaller, Taya caught a glimpse of a small creature rushing towards the ship and trying a jump.  It startled her, bringing with it a spike of adrenaline.  Taya rushed to the edge of the window to watch the creature do it again.  It looked like a sugar glider – not unlike the one she had seen just before the shirshu attacked.  It seemed to stare into Taya’s eyes as it became too small to distinguish from the land.  Taya breathed hard, frightened and wondering how a single tiny sugar glider from the Isle of Death seemed so sentient and so interested in her ship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY THIS CHAPTER IS KINDA BORING. It's all just set up for the following chapter(s) (which will be lit).
> 
> Also sorry for posting late even though I've never really established a schedule. So yeah. Oop. Look out for the next one within the week (hopefully)!


	14. Proximity Alert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Infiltrating a high-security military base goes about as well as one would expect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI YES HELLO SURPRISE HIATUS IS OVER, and as a bigger surprise.... here is a new chapter. More is coming! Planning to finish by mid-year.

Li Yin took a deep breath as she exited the air ship. It was well covered by trees and brush from the surrounding forest, but every nerve in her body ached with the anxiety of being caught. She wasn’t dressed – still in the casual dress clothes she’d packed when leaving to travel with Taya. If an officer who didn’t recognize her saw her like this, she’d be disciplined. On the other hand, if an officer did recognize her, she’d have to explain her clothes, why she was there, where she’d been for the last several years while she did her assignment with General Chen . . .

She took a step forward. If she managed to get over the fence in a blind spot, she could avoid most of the questions. The air ship was parked a few hundred meters from the edge of a fence Li Yin knew to be poorly covered with cameras and guards. Once, she’d argued with a superior about supplying another camera the cover the area, but he assured her that the base was remote enough that security would never really be a program. Well, until now.

Li Yin drew water from the stream nearby to help float her into the air. She sprang from the little wave when it had reached a height above the fence and landed successfully on the other side. If she saw that superior again, Li Yin surely needed to have some words about security again.

Now that she was inside, her anxiety tripled. She had landed herself in the base’s parking lot for military vehicles. Air ships, plastic satomobiles, and the like sat in intimidating rows.

“Li Yin, keep moving.” Her heart fell for a moment at the static sounds of the radio. Taya’s whispered voice monitoring her movement. Li Yin brought the radio to her mouth in annoyance.

“This is one-way, Taya. Don’t forget that.” She released the button with finality as she tucked the radio back into her bag. The radio was meant for emergency communication solely from Li Yin after all.

With a deep breath, she continued forward. She passed lines and lines of vehicles before reaching a central quad area. Because of the early time, there was no one save 5 guards posted at each main point of entry to the massive building ahead. It was made of plastic as well – paranoia from an incident long ago in which a metal bender infiltrated a base and caused various destruction before being detained. Despite being plastic, however, it was large and impressive. Li Yin fished binoculars from her bag to help identify the guards at the entrances. She scanned each one for someone she might vaguely know but not well enough to ask too many questions.

She was in luck. One of the guards was someone she remembered being a bit of a slacker and – best of all – ranked lower than her. Li Yin approached as naturally as possible.

“Morning,” she breathed, flashing her military ID. The officer narrowed his eyes at her clothes.

“You’re Captain Li Yin?” he questioned. He made a gesture with his hand requesting to look at her ID. Li Yin swallowed hard and held it out to him. “I thought you’d be shorter. And maybe a little more dressed to code.”

Despite her nerves, she knew that responding without implying her rank would arouse suspicion.

“Excuse me?” she managed. “Officer Hong, I don’t owe you an explanation.” She snatched back her ID badge and glared. Somewhat acknowledging his rudeness, the officer shrugged and stepped aside. Li Yin nodded to him seriously and took his offer, stomping almost as she passed him.

She breathed a huge sigh of relief while she inhaled the smell of metal and sausage. The day was just beginning for the officers here, and many of them had not yet come out from their rooms or the breakfast canteen. As inconspicuously as possible, Li Yin made her way to what she hoped was the fuel storage room. Thankfully, it was near the entrance she’d chosen, and Li Yin found that there was not a soul in the hallway to witness her open it. There was, however, a keypad.

Passwords in a secure military base like this probably changed at least once a month, if not once a week. Li Yin bit her lip. If the facility was lazy enough, they’d have the password posted in the break room. This would require Li Yin to go further into the base and greatly increase her chances of interacting with more people. She bit her lip.

Step after cautious step, Li Yin moved to the closest break room by following the scent of morning tea and fatigue. A soft yawn made her stop in place. There was someone – apparently a man – waiting for her just around the corner. He stepped out before she could muster the courage to move.

“Oh my . . are you . . You’re Captain Li Yin!” he exclaimed. He was middle-aged with a graying beard and sharp eyes that told her she was from the Earth Nation. “Have you been transferred here? How exciting!” With all the energy he portrayed in his voice, he grabbed and shook her hand in introduction. “I’m Colonel Min. What a pleasure.”

Bewildered, Li Yin shook his hand as enthusiastically as possible. His enthusiasm hopefully meant he wouldn’t be stopping her from getting the door code. She also desperately hoped that her acting skills were up to par because she was about to lie through her teeth.

“Yeah, just transferred, sir. I’m still moving in. Getting familiar with the base.” She smiled like her heart wasn’t beating dangerously fast.

“How exciting! I remember hearing about you. Only majors and higher, I think, knew about your appointment to General Chen’s Ba Sing Se post. Not to offend you, but a lot of us agree that your potential is so wasted on him!” the colonel laughed as he harshly whispered this. “We were just talking about you yesterday! A captain at your age. You haven’t been promoted since, though, correct?” Li Yin nervously nodded. “A shame! He wastes you, Captain.”

Li Yin was uncomfortably flattered but could only agree. She was transferred to his post as a newly promoted captain only to get dragged into the general’s home and personal problems. Li Yin adored Taya but found Taya the only tolerable part of her time there.

“I appreciate that,” was all she said. She smiled sincerely and let go of his hand.

“I’m so glad you’re posted here! I was worried that you’d be coming with General Chen this morning. I was actually heading to see if his air ship arrived.” The man took a sip of his tea like he hadn’t just made Li Yin’s stomach drop.

“I’m sorry?”

“General Chen’s here for an emergency meeting. All the generals are, actually.” Somehow her heart was beating even faster than before. She felt hot and suddenly nauseated.

“Emergency? What emergency?”

“For the Air Nation attack. Discuss retaliation, find General Chen’s daughter, etc. There’s a new person of interest, too. It’s going to be a long meeting. . .” he sighed. Li Yin nervously thought of Taya, just a radio message away and not missing at all.

“Oh, of course,” she laughed lightly. “Glad I won’t have to sit through that one.” He laughed with her. “Well, I’ll see you around, sir.” She saluted before side stepping around him into the break room. He offered a quick good bye before disappearing around the corner and allowing Li Yin a breath of relief. 

She patiently made herself a cup of tea with no intention of drinking a single drop. Her anxiousness would only be amplified by the caffeine, but she had the feeling she should at least keep it as a prop – an excuse should anyone find her in plain clothes wandering the hallways.

While stirring the fresh brew, her eyes scanned the walls for a list of passcodes. No luck. She bit her lip and began opening drawers. There were pens and napkins and plasticware, but Li Yin still couldn’t find a list of codes. She groaned as she began a somewhat panicked search of every crevice in the room. There had to be something. Asking another officer for the code to the fuel storage room on her supposed move-in day wasn’t going to look good. 

“Test!” came an alarming static noise. Li Yin jumped. It was her radio in her backpack. Taya’s voice was thick with impatience and worry. Li Yin threw her bag on the ground and began to dig through it.

“Clear for now.” Li Yin almost spat into the radio. “Now, shut up.” She added the last bit with a little too much edge thanks to her frustration. After a minute or so of skimming the room with her eyes, Li Yin gave an exasperated shout and laid down on the floor. The clean, white ceiling reflected florescence back into her tired eyes. Her fatigue began to catch up with her before her eyes finally caught sight of a piece of paper taped underneath the break room’s table. Li Yin snatched it with her hand and shot up. 

“Mastercode, reset password process” it read. Li Yin almost laughed out loud. She memorized the steps listed on the paper, then, carefully replaced it underneath the table. With slight confidence, Li Yin left the break room with her backpack slung over her shoulder and a cup of tea in hand.

With seemingly too much ease, Li Yin hacked the passcode and entered the storage room. There were large barrels stacked in rows as well as a very large tank with a hose close to the back wall where Li Yin assumed a large door opened to allow vehicle access. She’d never be able to bring their air ship in close enough to use the hose, but she could maybe bring a cart of fuel to the edge and bend the fuel from the containers into the ship. And then, she thought of their need for future fuel to store on board. There was no way to do this without physically taking a minimum of 2 barrels outside the walls. 

Li Yin had half a plan, but she began to load a cart with as much fuel as possible. She diligently rolled and pushed each barrel onto the large cart until probably 30 minutes had passed. Almost sweaty, Li Yin rolled the now full cart to the back wall. She saw a mechanism next to the part she assumed was a door. Truly they had everything to lose, but she slammed the button on the mechanism regardless. There was nothing else she could do.  
As the door creaked open, a thousand scenarios played through Li Yin’s mind. Somehow, though, none of them seemed to include the one revealed to her as the door crept upward. Without any preparation at all, Li Yin was suddenly a player in an intense battle.

\---------

After a while, Taya simply could not sit still. Sure, there was a tracker in Li Yin’s bag, and they had a rough map of the base crudely drawn by Li Yin. It didn’t help to settle Taya’s feelings anyway. When the last radio silence began, Taya had had enough. She set the radio down and slammed the release button for the main door.

“Um,” Em chimed in hesitantly. “Taya, whatcha doin’?” She sprinted up to the door and gently grabbed her arm.

“I’m just going to take a polite, unassuming stroll through the woods surrounding this large and dangerous military base.”

Em blinked. “Oh. You’re joking.” Taya nodded slowly.

“Is there a chance you’re going to listen to someone today? For maybe once?” This time it was Z’avi, and his tone strongly implied that he had much worse things about Taya he’d like to say.

“Probably not,” she replied with a sweet smile. The door was now wide open with a morning breeze blowing into the ship. Taya glanced nervously outside where she could just barely see over the base’s fence. Lines of air ships and other vehicles were stored there, and Li Yin had to be somewhere inside the massive structure that lay behind them.

“She’s just risking everything for me, you know. She has been for years, and . . . I just sort of let her.” Neither of them had anything to say to that. Instead of the assurance she’d hoped for, Taya found that her new friends must agree with her. With unease, her thoughts became a little dark before a piercing alarm inside the ship caught their attention. Taya quickly shoved the door closed, forcing the mechanism and hopefully muffling the sound.

“It’s a proximity alarm. There’re air ships landing.” Z’avi had busied himself at the front console, analyzing the information from the alarm. Taya and Em jogged to the front window hoping to catch a glimpse. What Taya found was all too familiar to her and not welcome at all – her father’s air ship.

“Oh s-“ she almost cursed. “It’s General’s Chen’s ship! Why the hell is he here?” she buried her face in her hands.

“Your dad?” Em looked back out the window intently. “She’s right. It’s a Ba Sing Se fleet ship.”

“I’m going out there,” Taya suddenly declared.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa-“ Z’avi grabbed and restrained Taya’s arm before she could make more than two steps. She groaned and yanked but was surprisingly unable to move. “You’re going to give yourself to the military? After all of this? After we left our home for you? After Li Yin’s risked her job – no, her life? You just said you felt guilty about it, yeah? Don’t waste this. It took so much work to jam their proximity alarm so we could land without them knowing we’re here, and you’re actually going to throw a tantrum?” Z’avi’s voice had become so loud that Taya was sure it was louder than the ship’s alarm had been. Every word dug into her ear and became more painful.

“You think I don’t know what you’ve all given for me? I’m sorry!” she shouted back. “Okay? I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do this by myself, but I also will not sit here and let you do it all for me. And I hate that I need your help, but I do! I need it. So please, help me get Li Yin out of there safely. Please.” Em and Z’avi’s faces clearly showed their shock. An emotional apology like this was out of character for Taya, but she really wished they’d have at least the slightest bit more of faith in her.

“Okay.” Em was the first to respond. Her smile was warm and mischievous. Z’avi never said a word, but he let go and stood by her and Em as the door began to open again. 

“Li Yin said that the fuel storage room had to be connected to that huge garage or hanger or whatever that is.” Taya was glancing at Li Yin’s crude map.

“Then that’s where we go.” Z’avi took the first stealthy steps towards the base wall with a hand held up as though he were prepared to melt a soldier’s face if they appeared before them. He probably was. Thankfully, no one appeared as they approached the wall. 

“How did Li Yin get over this?” Em whispered a little too loud. She jumped a bit trying to see if climbing was possible.

“Probably used water.” Taya chewed at her lip. For the thousandth time, she wished she could bend something.

“Honestly, you’re an air bender Em. Why are you panicking?” Z’avi’s voice was thick with annoyance. She mumbled a “yeah, right” and immediately floated them all into the air.

“Wait! Em!” Taya harshly whispered. But they were already being plopped onto the hard ground on the opposite side. With a huge sigh of relief, she noticed that no one had seen or heard them. Instead, Taya now focused entirely on her father’s ship. It was parked near the hanger and unloading a team of soldiers and air ship staff.

Soundlessly, Z’avi led them down a path that skirted the wall, and all the while, Taya cautiously whipped her head around to search for cameras. At one, she pulled Z’avi and Em behind a cold, empty air ship to avoid detection. Just when Taya thought they were safe, a loud voice interrupted her confidence.

“We’re picking up suspicious movement on the yard. Tell all your men to file in so we can do a security sweep.” All of them held their breath.

“Fine.” Taya heard her father’s commanding voice. “Major, tell the men to gather in the main hall in 5 minutes. You go there first and verify them.”

“Sir,” was all the other said with a salute before leaving to call the others to attention with his own commands.

“I never said this, but it’s really pretty cool that your dad’s a general,” Em whispered. Taya’s responding glare made Em purse her lips and look away.

Now that the base was on high alert, the group took extra caution as they tip-toed around the vehicles – trying to stay as covered and away from cameras as possible. Taya saw one officer out of the corner of her eye and nearly screamed. She grabbed Z’avi and Em by their clothes and yanked them under a satomobile with tall tires. They breathed heavily while adrenaline and fear pumped through their veins to accompany the sound of the officer’s passing footsteps.

“Thought I heard something,” the soldier mumbled. Only when he had walked several meters past them did Taya find this funny enough to smirk.

“This place is crawling! What do we do?” Em urgently whispered into Z’avi’s ear. He groaned quietly as he thought.

“We could,” Taya began, her mind racing. The others turned their heads to her in sync. “Steal a sato?” she finished but it came out far more like a question than a suggestion.  
“Steal . . . a sato,” Z’avi repeated almost too loudly.

“Well, what else can we do?” she whispered back. Truly, she didn’t see another way. There were now officers surrounding them in their search, and it would only get worse if they moved again and were detected. “We take the sato to the garage/hanger/whatever, and we park it by the door long enough to help Li Yin load and go.”

“Yeah, okay, just one problem – a huge one, by the way – we are very obviously going to be seen!” Z’avi was barely whispering anymore, and barely able to contain his frustration.

“What else can we do?” she repeated. This time, she enunciated every word. Both Em and Z’avi were silent. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was their only plan; and it was the only plan that was going to get Li Yin, the fuel, and everyone back to the ship.  
“We are a team of three benders. And me,” she paused with the horrible thought that she had automatically excluded herself from that list. “We can do this.”

When no one moved, Taya took the initiative and slid out from underneath the vehicle. Luckily no guards were within view. She gingerly opened the vehicle door and slid into the driver’s seat. Taya wasn’t exactly an experienced driver, but there was no time to practice. A moment later, Z’avi and Em slid into the back seat with her, already asking about keys. 

“Yeah, I think we’ll have to hot wire it,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Um. Are you serious?” Z’avi was already uneasy about the sato situation; but before he could protest further, Taya was yanking wires from beneath the wheel and starting the vehicle. Under her breath, she thanked the several times she snuck out of the house for this moment. She reversed the car out of the line and slammed on the gas before anyone could make their way over. Taya began to hear outbursts from the soldiers on the yard as she sped toward the hanger door.

“Taya, you’re going to hit it!” Em screamed as the door approaching seemingly too fast, but Taya hit the brakes and turned the wheel for a very dramatic screeching stop right in front of it. The vehicle was also, unfortunately, right in front of her father.

“Taya?” he shouted in surprise. Her eyes went wide. Of all the people in the base, her father had to be standing in front of the hanger door now? She hesitantly gave him a little wave. 

“Stand-“ her father’s booming voice began, but it was drowned by the shouts and attacks of the yard soldiers. Someone was an earth bender and had caused the ground beneath the satomobile to raise one side of it. Almost immediately, it tipped and rolled onto the ground upside down. Everyone, not seat belted, fell to the roof that now rested against the ground. Taya felt a sharp pain in her shoulder and gasped.

“I’m injured,” she yelled back at Z’avi and Em. They were seemingly fine and crawling out the shattered windows of the back seat. Em glanced back and, with a surprising commanding tone, told her to stay inside. Taya was taken aback and appreciated the concern, but had no intention of staying inside. She kicked out against the cracked, passenger window several times to make her escape. Surprisingly, she only had a few cuts from the tiny bits of glass as she scraped her way out and into the chaos.

“Three unknowns, two are confirmed benders. Air and fire!” a solider now next to Taya was shouting into his radio. Taya concentrated her mind and materialized herself directly in front of him. He gave a little gasp and stepped back.

“Two and a half,” she smirked and grabbed him by the collar. With a shaky hand, he raised the radio back to his mouth.

“T-two and a half benders,” he spoke again. Taya nearly laughed as she sent her fist into his nose.

“Taya!” it was her father’s voice. Her materialization turned around expectantly. “It’s really you.”

“Yeah.” 

“Where have you been? Are you all right?” He barely concealed his panic as he glanced at her lifeless body on the ground, smeared with bits of blood.

“Probably dislocated my shoulder. But I’m fine.” 

“General! Let me protect you!” a soldier cried as he ran at Taya. She easily side-stepped his attack and watched him trip and fall into a bed of shattered glass from the sato windows where he now seemed too preoccupied with injuries to worry about Taya.

“. . Anyway, I’m fine. I’m with people looking out for me. There’s something I have to do.” He opened his mouth to protest. “You have to let me do it. It’s important.” Taya stared into his eyes ready for an argument, but the general only stared back.

“They aren’t doing a very good job of protecting you,” he said just loud enough for her to hear. He was looking at her still figure on the ground again. When he looked back up, there were tears in his eyes. “Please be careful. You know why.” Taya was almost startled by the sight of her strong, proud father crying, but he was right. She did know why.

Suddenly, the door of the hanger began to creak and move. 

“Take this,” her father gestured to the keys and a piece of paper in his hand. “It operates a moving lift that can take you over the wall easily. You need to get out of here.” Just as she took them and shoved the paper in a pocket, the hanger door raised enough to reveal a nervous looking Li Yin pushing a cart full of fuel. When she had finally taken in the chaos around them and her superior’s curious stare, she nodded to them both.

“Sir,” she saluted awkwardly.

“You take my daughter out of here and protect her. Do you understand?” Li Yin stared at him. “Do you understand?” This time he said it so loudly that another officer began coming their way.  
“Sir!” she shouted back and began pushing the cart into the yard.

“How are we getting all this to the fence?” It was Em. She had shuffled and fought her way through soldiers back to the hanger. Taya dangled the keys in response and gestured for both of them to follow.  
The lift was next to the wall, but not the right wall to be helpful. Taya hopped on it and began scanning the buttons.

“Um, Taya. . . Your body is still by the hanger.” Em was gesturing with slight panic. Taya had indeed forgotten herself. Z’avi, just having gotten atop the lift with a barrel of fuel, groaned loudly and jumped off. He ran in the direction of her body, fighting off an earth bending soldier with a barrage of flames as he went.

In the meantime, Em and Taya searched the buttons. Em found the directional keys and began to send the lift down the wall towards the back.

“Wait!” came Li Yin’s strained voice. She was extremely busy with trying to load the lift with barrels while also fighting soldiers. “One of you switch with me!” she shouted, kicking a man in the face and jumping up on the moving lift in one movement. “I need to be at the ship first to load the fuel with bending. Should be enough water in it to do that . . .” Li Yin trailed off as she took over the controls and sent them down to the cart of fuel.

“I think I can get some air under these to load them on the lift!” Em began to bend the air around them to test her theory. “You take care of the soldiers, please!” While it seemed like a reasonable request, Taya wasn’t so sure when she looked out on the yard. A small team of them were preparing weapons even. Suddenly, one appeared behind her with an arm gripped around her throat.

“Are you with the Red Lotus, then?” he screamed into her ear. Confused, she gripped his arm and tossed him away.

“Why the hell would you think that?”

“Your body! That . .” he searched for the word, meanwhile realizing that it could be interpreted differently since Taya’s transparent figure was not really clothed. It was more like a transparent leotard covered her up to the neck. “T-the transparency!” he stuttered finally. His cheeks were flushed.

What was he implying? The only other form Taya knew to resemble hers was spiritual projection, and only air benders could do it. There weren’t any air benders with the Red Lotus . . were there?

Not wanting to confront that scary thought at the moment, Taya sent a jab into the man’s gut and he collapsed. Several more soldiers went down with only one hit. There was finally, though, an earth bender of impressive ability who created a huge wall around her that shrunk and shrunk. Taya didn’t think she would be able to escape it – the walls were too thick.

“Taya, come back!” she heard Z’avi’s voice. Somehow, she immediately understood what he meant. Taya concentrated herself, and her materialization’s consciousness slowly faded into her own.

With her real eyes opening, she saw Z’avi’s face far closer than anticipated. She flushed realizing he was carrying her body and sprinting to the back where the lift likely was now. Only, there was a wall shooting up out of the ground and directly in their way.

“Damn that earth bender,” Z’avi cursed under his breath and side stepped the growing structure, but it had slowed him down. Now a crowd of running soldiers were getting a little too close for comfort, and they would likely be able to reach up and grab one of them momentarily. Taya spotted an empty push cart next to the towering fence that looked out of place – Li Yins’ fuel cart.

“Z’avi!” she realized. “Z’avi, let’s surf on that!” He glanced down at her skeptically, but he apparently didn’t have a better idea. With Taya still in his arms, he lept on top of cart and it began to move. She was thankful that he stuck out an arm and sent an explosion from it like a bomb without even needing her suggestion. As planned, the cart was propelled the remaining thirty meters to the back wall where Em was graciously waiting to air bend them over it. Taya and Z’avi shouted in surprise as they were lifted into the air and over the wall without warning. They were both then unceremoniously dumped on the ground on the other side where Taya nearly had the wind knocked from her lungs. Her body also conveniently remembered that her left shoulder was dislocated. She shouted in pain with the little air in her lungs she had.

“Taya?” it was Z’avi, hesitating to grab and pull her up.

“Shoulder’s out,” she breathed as she caught sight of Li Yin bending fuel into the air ship’s tanks. “Is she almost done?”

“Yes!” shouted Em. She was opening the main hatch and ushering them inside. “Let’s let her do that so we can prep for take-off.” Taya gingerly cradled her shoulder while Z’avi helped her to stand and run towards the ship, now just barely hidden by the trees in the bright morning light.

Z’avi deposited Taya on the floor just inside the ship and ran to the controls. He yanked his radio from the dashboard and spoke into it loudly, “Let me know the moment you’re done so I can start it!”

He and Em busied themselves inside, flipping switches and shoving Mr. Snowball into the sleeping quarters. When a loud “okay” came over the radio, Z’avi slammed the button to start the ship.

“Can one of you help me get the others inside?” Li Yin yelled from the open door. She was shoving a barrel up and inside already. 

“Just take off, I’ll get them!” Em screamed as she nearly flew out of the hatch – probably using her air bending to increase speed. As the ship began to lift, the last barrels followed by Em whooshed inside; but there were soldiers not too far behind them. Taya, with her one good arm, dragged the door shut with finality. It closed just as the ship pulled away and the trees grew small. Everyone panting inside began to laugh. Somehow, the team had made it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're a returning reader, thank you so much for your patience!!! If you are new, hello and welcome. Hopefully will be posting once every couple weeks (or more frequently, we'll see!)  
> Also the formatting for this got messy... fixed what I saw but I don't feel like looking through it again so sorry l o l

**Author's Note:**

> Taya is a 2 year project of mine. I'm posting here to motivate me to finish it! I'm trying to update bi-monthly at the least, so please yell at me if I am not doing the thing.
> 
> Currently, we are about a third through the story. (on 6/22/18)


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